title: Accuracy of comparison of runtime
body: <p>All, I am wondering whether the following will give me an accurate assesment of the runtimes of these functions. I would be confident of the result if I knew whether the replications were done sequentially, but I don't. Thanks.</p>
  
  <pre><code>system.time(replicate(8000,function1(4,5)))
  system.time(replicate(8000,function2(4,5)))
  system.time(replicate(8000,function3(4,5)))
  </code></pre>