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Adding up Minutes and Seconds - easy way?


jim6918

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I am almost too ashamed to post this, but I'm sure there is some genius here who can tell me how to do it. Jimswinder, are you reading this? LOL

I have created lists of all of my shows, including song name and length of the sequence. I do this since I have 5 different shows with a mixture of 20 songs, and want to keep the show lengths somewhat similar. Different show 5 nights in a row.

In order to calculate the total length of the show, I first add up the seconds. That gives me the minutes/seconds. Total seconds minus multiples of 60.

Then I add up the minutes column and add the minutes from the first calculation.

This is not as bad as counting on my fingers and toes, but can't think of an easier way. But then again, my 5th grade math teacher still curses when she hears my name.

I have never been an Excel aficionado, is there a seconds/minutes/hours calculation function there?

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jim6918 wrote:

I am almost too ashamed to post this, but I'm sure there is some genius here who can tell me how to do it. Jimswinder, are you reading this?  LOL

I have created lists of all of my shows, including song name and length of the sequence.  I do this since I have 5 different shows with a mixture of 20 songs, and want to keep the show lengths somewhat similar.  Different show 5 nights in a row.

In order to calculate the total length of the show, I first add up the seconds. That gives me the minutes/seconds. Total seconds minus multiples of 60. 

Then I add up the minutes column and add the minutes from the first calculation.

This is not as bad as counting on my fingers and toes, but can't think of an easier way.  But then again, my 5th grade math teacher still curses when she hears my name.

I have never been an Excel aficionado, is there a seconds/minutes/hours calculation function there?


Ok. Let me help.

All together now with both hands, 1, 2, 3, 10. That's it. LOL!
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jim6918 wrote:

I have created lists of all of my shows, including song name and length of the sequence. I do this since I have 5 different shows with a mixture of 20 songs, and want to keep the show lengths somewhat similar. Different show 5 nights in a row.

I have never been an Excel aficionado, is there a seconds/minutes/hours calculation function there?

In Excel it is really easy.

Enter the time in hours:minutes:seconds
For example . . .
enter 2 minutes 34 seconds as 0:2:34
enter 3 minutes 45 seconds as 0:3:45
Use summation key to add up the column and in this case the answer is 0:6:19 telling you that the total is 6 minutes and 19 seconds.

Richard
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Mountainwxman wrote:

Ok. Let me help.

All together now with both hands, 1, 2, 3, 10. That's it. LOL!


With my shoes off, I can count to 20, completely naked, 21!

I've done the same thing as Jim in excel, adding up seconds to get various show combos the same length. With Windows Media Player you can create a "playlist" of your songs, and at the bottom it will add up the playlist total to give you an estimate. But, it is only minutes, not down to seconds...
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amcdonald307 wrote:

With my shoes off, I can count to 20, completely naked, 21!

If you tried counting in binary, you would be able to get to 2,097,151. ;)

Regards,

Alan.
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With my shoes off, I can count to 20, completely naked, 21!


Another thread that went "South of the border":)
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an old pilot's trick I think I remember...

take all your times in a column, put in 940 as very last number in the column, total it up, subtract 9, gives you total hours minutes but should work for mins/secs too..

ex:

2:44
3:27
1:14
--------
7:25

becomes

244
327
114
940
----------
1625

subtract 9 hrs = 7:25

TJ

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amcdonald307 wrote:

With my shoes off, I can count to 20, completely naked, 21!



why not 23?

is(are) some thing(s) missing?
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TJ Hvasta wrote:

an old pilot's trick I think I remember...

take all your times in a column, put in 940 as very last number in the column, total it up, subtract 9, gives you total hours minutes but should work for mins/secs too..

ex:

2:44
3:27
1:14
--------
7:25

becomes

244
327
114
940
----------
1625

subtract 9 hrs = 7:25

TJ






very cool...not sure how efficient, but very cool...need to spend some time looking at why it works...
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TJ Hvasta wrote:

an old pilot's trick I think I remember...


Save even more time and just add 40.

2:44
3:27
1:14
--------
7:25

becomes

244
327
114
40
----------
725
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I know it looks like adding just the number 40 would work, but it won't.. Pilots have been adding up the totals of the legs they fly a day using this formula, nothing else works as easily. don't ask why, it just works that way..

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It would appear the method also only works if your total seconds (or, I guess, minutes) contribution exceeds one minute. In other words, the 940 trick handles the "carry". Example:

3:15
2:21
5:11

Easy to see this is 10:47

Adding 940 then messes you up on the seconds side...you have to do the seconds carry yourself.

However...make it:

3:45
2:21
5:11

and the 940 trick works:


3:45
2:21
5:11
9:40

gives 20:17, minus 9, gives 11:17.

To Ernie's point, I've not found an example where just adding 40 doesn't work...but that doesn't obviously prove it works every time...but if you think about the fact you are adding to the hours exactly what you subtract, intuitively, it makes sense.

From a mathematical proof standpoint, and "why it works", just looking at it, guessing it has something to do with the fact time is essentially base 60 math, and "normal" math, when adding two columns is base 100...the delta being 40...just throwing that out there..not a lot of hard proof to back it up...

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OK I'll fess up, adding 40 doesn't work either. Obviously if you add 200 and 200 and then add 40, you won't get 400.

I spent a little time with Excel checking this out. If you add two times together and neither has seconds over 29, you'll get the wrong answer. But if you add one more time that has 30 or more seconds, you will get the right answer.

I haven't checked it out but I believe that if you have at least one time with less than 30 seconds and one time with more than 30 seconds, it will work out.

I found this on the Internet and well... you know what they say about anything you find on the internet. After all it WAS free.:P

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TJ's original method does work (the 940 method), and yea, I actually found a couple references when I googled it.

As far as the situation you are mentioning, it appears to go back to that one rule that it will only work if you exceed 60 seconds/minutes in your right column. As long as that sum, (no matter how many entries), breaks you past 60, it works.

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DonFL wrote:

As far as the situation you are mentioning, it appears to go back to that one rule that it will only work if you exceed 60 seconds/minutes in your right column. As long as that sum, (no matter how many entries), breaks you past 60, it works.

But NOT if it goes beyond 120 seconds or two minutes worth of seconds. You would need an additional 40 (940). Beyond 180 seconds would require another 40 (940) and so forth.

Richard
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In Excel...

Go to :

Format

Cells

Number Tab

Time

and change the column to the time format you want to see (IE: 00:00:00)

then you can just use all math functions as usual, like the SUM function.

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jimswinder wrote:

In Excel...



That's cheating!:D

What if you're stranded on a deserted island and you need to know the total time you've actually spent trying to catch a fish?
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ErnieHorning wrote:

jimswinder wrote:
In Excel...



That's cheating!:D

What if you're stranded on a deserted island and you need to know the total time you've actually spent trying to catch a fish?

I thought fishermen didn't CARE how long it took to catch a fish....as long as they had another beer to open...:)
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