Understanding the Accepted Error in Stopwatch Usage

[nicedazed]

Homework Statement

I'm not too sure if this is the correct forum, but I had an experiment where we were timing things with a hand held stopwatch. The stopwatch goes to 0.01 seconds, but clearly the human error would outweigh that error.

So, if anyone could help me, I would like to know what the 'accepted' error in pushing a stopwatch would be.

Yes, I know we all have different reaction times, but I was thinking along the lines of +/- 0.1 seconds?

Thanks

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution

 

[abhishek ghos]

half of that
try clicking it twice voluntarily and you know the error
neurons shoot at ahigh speed ,almost the same as on witnessing an event

 

[berkeman]

Homework Statement

I'm not too sure if this is the correct forum, but I had an experiment where we were timing things with a hand held stopwatch. The stopwatch goes to 0.01 seconds, but clearly the human error would outweigh that error.

So, if anyone could help me, I would like to know what the 'accepted' error in pushing a stopwatch would be.

Yes, I know we all have different reaction times, but I was thinking along the lines of +/- 0.1 seconds?

Thanks

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution

Wow, the wikipedia article has lots of stuff in it! Yoiks.

Anyway, you may be able to find good into to use in the article. You can even reference it in you lab report:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_time

.