Crossword clues for stopwatch
stopwatch
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. A timepiece designed to measure the amount of time elapsed from a particular time when activated and when the piece is deactivated.
WordNet
n. a timepiece that can be started or stopped for exact timing (as of a race) [syn: stopo watch]
Wikipedia
A stopwatch is a handheld timepiece designed to measure the amount of time elapsed from a particular time when it is activated to the time when the piece is deactivated. A large digital version of a stopwatch designed for viewing at a distance, as in a sports stadium, is called a stopclock. In manual timing, the clock is started and stopped by a person pressing a button. In fully automatic time, both starting and stopping are triggered automatically, by sensors.
The timing functions are traditionally controlled by two buttons on the case. Pressing the top button starts the timer running, and pressing the button a second time stops it, leaving the elapsed time displayed. A press of the second button then resets the stopwatch to zero. The second button is also used to record split times or lap times. When the split time button is pressed while the watch is running, the display freezes, allowing the elapsed time to that point to be read, but the watch mechanism continues running to record total elapsed time. Pressing the split button a second time allows the watch to resume display of total time.
Mechanical stopwatches are powered by a mainspring, which must be periodically wound up by turning the knurled knob at the top of the watch.
Digital electronic stopwatches are available which, due to their crystal oscillator timing element, are much more accurate than mechanical timepieces. Because they contain a microchip, they often include date and time-of-day functions as well. Some may have a connector for external sensors, allowing the stopwatch to be triggered by external events, thus measuring elapsed time far more accurately than is possible by pressing the buttons with one's finger. Stopwatches that count by 1/100 of a second are commonly mistaken as counting milliseconds, rather than centiseconds. The first digital timer used in organized sports was the Digitimer, developed by Cox Electronic Systems, Inc. of Salt Lake City Utah (1971). It utilized a Nixie-tube readout and provided a resolution of 1/1000 second. Its first use was in ski racing, but was later used by the World University Games in Moscow, Russia, the U.S. NCAA, and in the Olympic trials.
The device is used when time periods must be measured precisely and with a minimum of complications. Laboratory experiments and sporting events like sprints are good examples.
The stopwatch function is also present as an additional function of many digital wristwatches, cell phones, portable music players, and computers.
StopWatch is a joint venture between a range of civil society organisations, activist and human rights groups, academics and campaigners. StopWatch was established to address concerns about the use of Stop and Search powers by police in the UK with regards to law, community relations and civil rights. Its primary target is addressing the significant ethnic dis-proportionality in the use of stop and search; however, it also aims to review the use of powers which do not require reasonable suspicion to order a stop and search such as section 60 and to ensure effective monitoring and accountability are employed in conjunction with Stop and Search powers. It also aims to promote more effective methods of policing that do not have the same impact upon civil liberties and community relations.
The StopWatch Campaign involves: Equanomics UK; Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS); Mannheim Centre for Criminology, LSE; Muslim Safety Forum; NACRO; Not Another Drop; Open Society Justice Initiative; Release; The Runnymede Trust; School of Law, King’s College London; Second Wave; and Turning Point.
Usage examples of "stopwatch".
Major Dillon had not one but three stopwatches, all hanging from cords around his neck, and then, as the ferrying of the avgas to the Catalina was carried out, understood what he was doing with them.
Slim and Jim have properly functioning stopwatches, each will measure the identical elapsed time.
Of course, this difference is so small that it could be detected only through a measurement whose accuracy is well beyond the capacity of hand-held stopwatches run by the press of a finger, Olympic-quality timing systems, or even the most precisely engineered atomic clocks.
True, it took only a minute or two, and the clockers stood with their stopwatches, the trainers with theirs, but it was timeless to her.
All this time the movie projector was showing blue films on the wall, and now I sat on a chair with the stopwatch to time the girls as the first one came in and stood astride him and relieved herself.
Since Jim knows that Slim is speeding along at 120 miles per hour, he is able to figure out the length of the car by multiplying this speed by the elapsed time on his stopwatch.
It told local time, Greenwich Mean Time on the twenty-four-hour system, the day of the week, the month, the phase of the Moon, and served also as a stopwatch, lap timer and alarm clock.
I had half an eye on the viewers and the other half on the stopwatch.
In the outfield Pat Gillick, the general manager of the Toronto Blue jays, stands with a stopwatch in the palm of his hand.
Like all PAs that autumn, Daysee wandered round clutching a clipboard and a stopwatch, wearing loose trousers tucked into sawn-off suede boots, and jerseys with pictures knitted on the front.
Without a calendar, a stopwatch, a measuring cup on the night table, I couldn't possibly know how to die.
This involved constructing some kind of brick oven outside, and then doing a lot of coming and going with bowls of boiling water, stopwatches, penknives and dismembered bits of the local wildlife.
Different kinds of radioactive decay-based geological stopwatches run at different rates.
In training shoes, in tracksuit bottoms (with my stopwatch and mysteroids), I cheer her on from the touchline.
Ryan clicked the stopwatch again, unjammed the camera with his other hand, and strolled over to study the sad and baffled face of Saint Sebastian.