# stopwatch and milliseconds

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopwatch-and-milliseconds/70444>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 28, 2001, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopwatch-and-milliseconds/70444 "2001-06-28T10:42:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![curwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopwatch-and-milliseconds/70444/1 "2001-06-28T10:42:15Z")

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I have a feeling the answer to this is either pretty obvious, or my assumption is really wrong, but I’ll take a shot at it anyway…

On a digital watch, which includes a stopwatch, you will have minutes, seconds, and two more digits. I think I have always heard those two digits referred to as “milliseconds”. I _know_ that I have never heard the word “centisecond”. But if it is only two digits, shouldn’t it be something like centiseconds? Wouldn’t it have to be 3 digits to be a millisecond?

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**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopwatch-and-milliseconds/70444/2 "2001-06-28T11:35:09Z")

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Can’t say as I’ve ever heard the term “millisecond” applied to the fractions of a second displayed on stopwatches. Race results and the like I’ve heard are usually given as “2 minutes, 3 and 12 hundredths (or sometimes 3.12) seconds.”

But I agree with your premise: those who use the term “millisecond” in that context are in error.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopwatch-and-milliseconds/70444/3 "2001-06-28T11:50:39Z")

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Concur

Milliseconds would also be pretty useless on a stopwatch that relies on a human pressing the button to start/stop it too, in fact, even the 100ths of a second are pretty much arbitrary because of human reaction times.