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One elephant, two elephant, three............ second counting

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 Al Evans 16 Mar 2014
When I was still at school this was how a teacher, I think it was the chemistry teacher, told us how to count seconds, so if a reaction needed observing how many seconds it took to happen we could count it, one elephant, two elephant etc.
I have used this all my life and I just checked and it is still incredibly accurate at my speed of speaking, obviously over ten it gets a bit more inaccurate as eleven for instance is a lot longer to say than one or two, but generally it holds it's accuracy well into the twenties.
Actually it is amazingly accurate for me I have even tried it on watching 100mt races and I can generaly get it right .
This of course may be because it matches the natural cadence of my speech, I suspect it would not work for Indians or Spanish people who talk much faster.
What does anyone else use for counting seconds?
 Timmd 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:
I wonder if a Spanish person would have to say hippopotamus when speaking English?
Post edited at 12:09
 Choss 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

always done 1, one Thousand, 2, one Thousand, 3, one Thousand.......

Same thing Though, a 3 syllable count between each Second.
OP Al Evans 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Choss:

I suppose our chemistry teacher thought that elephants would be more memorable than thousand, worked with me obviously.
 Choss 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

> I suppose our chemistry teacher thought that elephants would be more memorable than thousand, worked with me obviously.

Yes. Think ill switch to elephants in future, Better mental imagery, not that i have much call for counting Seconds anyway
 Timmd 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Choss:

Or elephants? ()
Jim C 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:
Me too, works well.
 Carolyn 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

The Lego movie reminded me of what I was taught in school in the US - "Mississippi". In the UK, I was taught "one thousand".
 full stottie 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

Counting Elephants first came to my attention in the film Gregory's Girl - might have been the lad developing photos he'd taken of a woman through a window, or later in the film, can't remember.

But it works anyway, and I've been teaching my grandchildren how to do it recently. (Counting that is, not photographing through windows
 Hooo 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

Learned to use thousands to count seconds when learning to skydive. To this day I can't get to three thousand without looking up.
andyathome 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

I recall sitting in a tent with my two young lads as a storm approached 'counting elephants' between flash and bang warm in our sleeping bags.

Eventually there was one godalmighty explosion of light and sound that seemed to shake the earth.

As it got quiet from the corner of the tent came a small voice....

'I think that was half an elephant'.
 Blue Straggler 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

I learned it from the 1982 film "Poltergeist".
"One thousand" between each count. Because it is such a memorable scene (the thunderstorm - before all the supernatural stuff starts happening)
 Choss 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Blue Straggler:

> I learned it from the 1982 film "Poltergeist".

> "One thousand" between each count. Because it is such a memorable scene (the thunderstorm - before all the supernatural stuff starts happening)

"They're here"

 Blue Straggler 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Choss:

Yawl hang back there, yaahw blockin' maaah vaaaahbs
 Blue Straggler 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

>

> Actually it is amazingly accurate for me I have even tried it on watching 100mt races and I can generaly get it right .

I imagine that you remember the times that you've got it right, and forget the times that you've got it wrong, leading you to believe that you generally get it right.
 goose299 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

I was taught Mississippi as a kid.
In reply to Hooo:

One thousand, two thousand... seems to be standard for parachuting, but I have always found those thousands a bit awkward on the tongue. Much easier is "One AND, two AND, three AND..." and surprisingly accurate once one has learned how to stress and drag the AND's. (Just practice with a clock or watch.)
 crayefish 16 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

> What does anyone else use for counting seconds?

A stopwatch
In reply to Al Evans:

I just count one...two..three, etc, putting a one second gap between each count. It works for me...
mgco3 17 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

Mississippi works for me. Thousand has to have the word one in front of it for the cadence to work. i.e "one one thousand two one thousand three one thousand " etc

Practice for a few minutes with a clock that has a tick and you should be able to get quite accurate with the counts..
 pebbles 17 Mar 2014
In reply to mgco3:
I find if i use 'one missippi' etc I can say it a bit too easily, so tend to underestimate The awkwardness of 'one thousand and..." seems to work much beter for me
 lithos 17 Mar 2014
In reply to full stottie:

in the film he asks him about the photo exposure and aperture and he says
"1/125th of an elephant" top film with some quality quotes -
"coffee black or white .... Brown"
 BusyLizzie 17 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

I was told that if you sing the Pink Panther theme music to yourself it will always be one beat per second. It seems to work for me.
Jim C 17 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:
Thinking about it, should it not be :- Elephant 1, Elephant 2.........

Why do we start at 1' as one second has not yet elapsed?




OP Al Evans 18 Mar 2014
In reply to Jim C:

Actually you are absolutely correct, that is the way to so it.
 George Fisher 18 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

Your technique is esp useful when doing a stock take of elephants being unloaded from a wheel borrow at the rate of 60 per minute.

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