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← What a Time Standard Means · Lesson 2 of 4

The hidden line

About it

Plot each cut against its number of steps and the six points fall on a straight line. Follow the line back to zero steps and it lands on 27.03 seconds: the base the table is built from, printed nowhere on it.

Each step is about 4.7% of that base. That is why the same idea works for every age and event: a different base, the same recipe. The Cut Card on this site finds the line for any table you type in.

The figure

The line under the table

010steps from the baseBBBAAAAAAAAAAthe base: 27.03 s
The six cuts plotted against their steps from the base: B ten steps out, BB seven, A four, AA three, AAA two, AAAA one. They fall on a straight line. Followed back to zero steps, the line lands on 27.03 seconds, the base the table never prints; each step is about 4.7% of it.
One question

Another table sits on the same kind of line. Its AAAA cut (one step out) is 31.29 and its AA cut (three steps out) is 34.09. Where is its base?

Say it back
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