Everyone counts seconds wrong, because we start at 1 instead of 0. amirite?

The time it takes to count 1 is one second, ideally.

by priscilla81 5 hours ago

I think it would actually work if people would start doing the thing before you said "1," but I think to most people the word "1" is their signal to begin.

by Anonymous 5 hours ago

Well that's kind of their fault yeah?

by Murrayethan 4 hours ago

They shouldnt start before you say 1. They should start when you start saying 1 and already be doing it before you're done saying one. If they dont have a fast enough reaction time then its on them.

by Whole-Fish 4 hours ago

When you count time, you don't start at zero because it's automatic. If you start counting at zero, you're automatically one second late.

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

In this case it's how we count time for doing something, for example, you should start at zero instead of one though. Like "You have 5 seconds to get out that door." You should say "0, 1, 2, 3..." instead of "1, 2, 3, etc." As said though, if you count backwards, "5, 4, 3..." we do it correctly because we don't consider time to be up until the count after "1".

by Anonymous 3 hours ago

Yeah but if you're keeping time and start bay saying zero, you'll already be at 1 second by the time you finish saying zero. This puts you one second behind. Like start the timer on your phone when you say zero and you'll be at one second before you finish.

by Anonymous 3 hours ago

I mean, our rockets are still landing on target, so we're doing something right

by WingAsleep 3 hours ago

NASA launches as far as I know do countdowns which do work correctly. Instead of counting up.

by Anonymous 3 hours ago

I am a human trying to found something as precise as seconds. I'm probably off before I get to ten anyways. If I want precise, I will use one of many available timekeeping technologies available to me. So who cares?

by darengreen 2 hours ago

Understood, but why be an extra second off if you don't need to be?

by Anonymous 2 hours ago

Counting one second is supposed to take a second, so saying "1,2,3,4,5" takes 5 seconds. Of course its important to make sure the time is only up as soon as youre done saying the 5, not when you start

by Whole-Fish 2 hours ago

Very interesting way to think about it. But do we count time as up when we START saying 5 or when we finish saying it? That may be relevant.

by Anonymous 2 hours ago

That's counting items though, counting items starting with 1 is correct. You have a full kangaroo in front of you that you're counting as 1. But if you want to give someone 5 seconds to go somewhere, they should start going at 0 seconds instead of 1 second. 1 second means a full second has passed so they actually only get 4 seconds when they start when you say 1. Hope that makes sense.

by Anonymous 1 hour ago

bro the GO is the zero

by Anonymous 1 hour ago

You say the number at the end of the second. Silence. "One!" Thats one second. So on and so forth.

by Unfair-Move 1 hour ago

Usually people say ready, go …1, 2,3,4,5 or you have 5 seconds…1,2,3,4,5 That pause is your first second, you also have the whole time their are speaking

by Rhianna90 1 hour ago

You're demented. LOL We do start at zero.... it is just silent... when we say "1", at least a second has passed already.

by Anonymous 39 minutes ago

Ok

by terry41 12 minutes ago