# Stopwatches count in centiseconds?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopwatches-count-in-centiseconds/445237>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 14, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopwatches-count-in-centiseconds/445237 "2008-04-14T00:48:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![buttons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8edcca/32.png) [@buttons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttons)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopwatches-count-in-centiseconds/445237/1 "2008-04-14T00:48:21Z")

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Have I been misguided all my life, or do stopwatches actually count in centiseconds, and not milliseconds, as I’ve been led to believe? The conventional stopwatch that I use is in the format of MM:SS:(CC). Since there are only two digits in the last section, the watch is counting in 1/100th of a second, which is a centisecond by definition.

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopwatches-count-in-centiseconds/445237/2 "2008-04-14T00:55:02Z")

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Or, 10 milliseconds…

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**Author:** ![buttons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8edcca/32.png) [@buttons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttons)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopwatches-count-in-centiseconds/445237/3 "2008-04-14T00:56:40Z")

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But when you report the times, most people would say “it was greater by a millisecond” or “3 minutes and 2 milliseconds”. That would be inaccurate, correct?

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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:** [April 14, 2008, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopwatches-count-in-centiseconds/445237/4 "2008-04-14T01:00:17Z")

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If they said that, it would be inaccurate. I’ve never heard anyone say that though - I only recall people saying ‘slower by two hundredths of a second’ - when they’re using a timer that measures in 100ths of a second.