Quick answer
Convert the whole duration to seconds and divide by the number of parts. If you must schedule in whole seconds, use the remainder to distribute leftover seconds.
Step by step
- Convert hours and minutes to seconds. Choose a positive whole number of parts.
- Divide total seconds by the number of parts to find the exact equal length.
- For a whole-second schedule, take the quotient rounded down and add one second to as many blocks as there are remainder seconds.
Worked examples
Equal without a remainder
10 minutes is 600 seconds. Divide by 3 to get 200 seconds each, or 3 minutes 20 seconds.
Account for a remainder
10 seconds ÷ 3 is 3⅓ seconds each. With whole seconds, make blocks of 4, 3 and 3 seconds.
Find checkpoint times
For the 10-second schedule, the cumulative boundaries are at 0, 4, 7 and 10 seconds.
What to check
Add the lengths of all blocks to recover the original total. For the mean of several measured durations, add those different values before you divide.
Related guides
Sources
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