Calculating time?

Factual Questions
1

I tried to do a search and kept getting “This Page Cannot Be Displayed.”

I do a music podcast and each show runs about an hour long. It’s a pain in the butt to try and figure out how many songs I can get in, so I tend to round up to the next number (a song 3:45 would be rounded up to 4 minutes) but I don’t like that. Are there any free programs that will calculate time for me? I have Windows XP but the calculator that comes with it doesn’t seem to calculate time. At least, I have figured out how to get it to do that. Is there a way?

Thanks in advance, if anyone can help me!

2

Here ya go.

3

It’s also not too hard to with a normal calculator.

1 hour = 60 min = 3600 seconds. Start from there and subtract off each song.
3:45 = 3*60 + 45 = 180 + 45 = 225 seconds.

You could also set up some basic formulas to do the above in excel.

4

My scientific calculator has a degrees/minutes/seconds function that’s fairly easy to use.

5

Wouldn’t those be minutes and seconds of arc, not of time?

6

Yes, but they calculate out the same way. 60 seconds in a minute, and 60 minutes in a degree (or hour).

7

A spreadsheet would make this easy, although for just this one simple use it’s obviously overkill. Here’s a free one if you’re interested: http://www.openoffice.org/product/calc.html

8

Of course. D’oh. ::slinks away::

9

Thanks to everyone who replied (even those who slink away in apparant disgrace). I appreciate the responses. This program is exactly what I’m looking for. I’ll keep this thread and the other suggestions in mind should Q.E.D’s web page disappear.

I’d still like to know how to get Microsoft’s Windows XP calculator to calulate time, in case I’m putting together a show and my net connection is down, if anyone knows. It has “scientific” functions, but how do I get it to work?

10

Getting the Windows Calculator to do time additions is a little tricky and probably a lot more trouble than it’s worth, considering how easy it is to get the same effect from programs like the one named earlier in this thread.

Anyway, the calculator will recognize the degrees-minutes-second (DMS) format, but the syntax is a little weird. There are no symbols for minutes or seconds, so you have to treat the whole number as one continuous string. For example, if I want to represent 3 degrees, 42 minutes and 15 seconds, I’d input this:

3.4215

If I want to input a the length of a song with a running time of 4 minutes and 53 seconds, I’d input this:

0.0453

One of the many problems with this scheme is that the calculator has no intrinsic way of knowing that you’ve just input a DMS number. So if you attempt to add 4 minutes and 53 seconds to, e.g., 2 minutes and 12 seconds by entering this:

0.0453 + 0.0212 =

Then you’ll get the decimal sum of those numbers. The way to get around this snag is to enter the times you want to add in DMS format (as above), convert each addend from DMS to decimal, add the numbers all up, and then convert back from decimal to DMS.

To do this in the Windows calculator, you have to enter the first number, press Inverse + DMS (or press the keyboard shortcut i, then m), press plus, enter the second number, press Inverse + DMS, and so on, then press equals, then press DMS (or the keyboard shortcut m).

If you follow these instructions, you should get that

0.0453 + 0.0212 = 0.0705, or 7 minutes and 12 seconds, which is the correct answer.

There are definitely better ways to do the time-adding operation, but it can be accomplished with the Windows Calculator.

can only add decimal numbers. If you put two numbers into the calculator and add them, it will do so using the decimal system, not the degrees-minutes-seconds system.

11

I think Google calculator can do this for you. You’d type something like

(2 minutes and 35 seconds) + (3 minutes and 45 seconds)

You might need to use +'s instead of "and"s, I don’t know for sure.

12

Geez, far be it for me to promote my own website :rolleyes: but here’s a pretty darned friendly time calculator that can do up to 10 additions at once:
http://www.1728.com/nonmtric.htm
(Click the “Time” bar and there you go).

Also, we had a thread on this a while ago particularly about setting up Excel to do this. I’ll search for it.

13

WOW - the Straight Dope search feature is incredibly S…L…O…W tonight.
Here’s the link about calculating time on an Excel spreadsheet:

That thread is fun to read as all the “Dopers” start competing with one another but finally end up with three different (but nonetheless correct) methods of time calculation. :slight_smile:

14

Procyon, THANK YOU for typing all that out. My god, I know that must have taken you a while when you could have been doing other things. Please know that I appreciate it, even as I say, yikes! That’s way too complicated for my simple needs. I assumed/hoped there was a specific button I could push and voila! it would calculate time. I hope someone else can use the information though.

On the other hand…

OHMYGOD! This is GREAT! It’s (almost) perfect. I love that I can put in a bunch, because I forget sometimes which numbers I’ve put in, and then have to start all over again. I can also change one without messing up the others. The only thing that would make it perfect would be if it had more rows. I generally play between 13-16 songs in an hour, but it’s usually the last half of the show that I change around most, deciding this song would be better after song #8, and that song doesn’t work as an ender, try another. But that’s ok. Once I get the first half of the show set I can add those up and write down the number, then work on the last half. THANK YOU wolf-meister! Thanks to everyone who responded.

If anyone’s interested in female vocals, here’s my show.

15

Excalibur, my favorite piece of Windows-only freeware ever. It’s an RPN calculator that works under all versions of Windows from 95 on up. It has all of the functions you could ever want or need, including programmability, and it comes with a very nice and complete help file.

16

You can do this in Microsoft Excel as well. You can format cells in various time formats. Choose Format>Cells>Number select “Time” in the left hand part of the screen and either “37:30:55” or “30:55.2” in the right hand part of the screen. (At least that works for my version. How good are you at Excel? I’ve assumed some proficiency but if the summary notes are too vague, let me know and I’ll gladly give more detail.)

By this method you can add up a column of times. The first choice gives you h:mm:ss (e.g. 0:12:14) and the other gives you mm:ss.s (12:14.6) with tenths of a second in the final place. I do notice a quirk with entering the time with the second option. To get, for example, 12 min, 14.6 sec, you need to enter it as 0:12:14.6 with a lead 0 for the hours. It also stores it strangely, but the addition function works OK.

The other suggestions are great but this might be easier and more under your own control. Most people have access to Excel. I hope it works for you and let me know if you need help.