Watch which time units you use in charts, graphs, and tables

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I saw an article at KTVB on October 10, 2022 titled Chick-fil-A has slowest drive-thru, study says. It referred to The 2022 QSRDrive-Thru Report, which has lots of data for ten chains, and said that Chick-fil-A took 325.47 seconds, versus just 221.99 seconds for Taco Bell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Data for all ten chains are shown above via a PowerPoint bar chart. But I don’t usually think in terms of hundreds of seconds – and likely neither do you. My watch displays times in hours, minutes, and seconds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

325.47 seconds converts to a much smaller and easier to grasp 5 minutes and 13 seconds (5.215 min). Relabeling the chart in minutes (with a scale running from zero to six), as shown above, makes a lot more sense for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But why does getting served at Chick-fil-A take so long? As shown above via a third bar chart, they are a lot busier – with more cars in line than other chains.

 

There is an article by Seth Emerson at The Athletic on September 23, 2022 titled College football games are taking longer, and everyone, including TV, wants to fix that. In 2022 the average game takes 3 hours and 32 minutes, which makes a lot more sense than saying either 212 minutes or a ludicrous 12,720 seconds.