When people say that the moment is enough for them, they probably do not realize that they promise to be free in exactly 90 seconds. Indeed, in the Middle Ages, the term "moment" defined a period of time lasting 1 / 40th of an hour, or, as it was then customary to say, 1 / 10th point, which was 15 minutes. In other words, it counted 90 seconds. Over the years, the moment has lost its original meaning, but it is still used in everyday life to denote an indefinite but very short interval.
So why do we remember the moment, but forget about ghari, nuktemeron, or something even more exotic?
1. Atom
The word "atom" comes from the Greek term for "indivisible", and therefore is used in physics to define the smallest particle of matter. But in the old days this concept was applied in relation to the shortest period of time. A minute was thought to have 376 atoms, each one less than 1/6 of a second long (or 0.15957 seconds to be precise).
2. Ghari
What kind of instruments and devices were not invented in the Middle Ages to measure time! While the Europeans exploited the hourglass and sundial with might and main, the Indians used clepsydras - ghari. Several holes were made in a hemispherical bowl made of wood or metal, after which it was placed in a pool of water. The liquid, seeping through the slots, slowly filled the vessel until the weight completely submerged it to the bottom. The whole process took about 24 minutes, so this range was named after the device - ghari. At that time, it was believed that a day consists of 60 ghari.
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3. Chandelier
A chandelier is a period lasting 5 years. The use of this term is rooted in antiquity: then the lustrum denoted a five-year period of time that completed the establishment of the property qualification of Roman citizens. When the amount of tax was determined, the countdown came to an end, and a solemn procession poured into the streets of the Eternal City. The ceremony ended with lustration (purification) - a pretentious sacrifice to the gods on the Champ de Mars, performed for the welfare of citizens.
4. Mileway
All that glitters is not gold. Whereas a light year, seemingly created to define a period, measures distance, a mileway, a mile-long path, is used to measure time. Although the term sounds like a unit of measure for distance, in the early Middle Ages it meant a stretch of 20 minutes. That is how much it takes a person to cover a mile-long route on average.
5. Nundine
The inhabitants of Ancient Rome worked seven days a week, tirelessly. On the eighth day, however, which was considered the ninth for them (the Romans referred to the last day of the previous period as well), they organized huge markets in the cities - nundins. The market day was named "novem" (in honor of November - the ninth month of the 10-month agricultural "Year of Romulus"), and the time interval between the two fairs was called Nundine.
6. Nuctemeron
Nuktemeron, a combination of two Greek words "nyks" (night) and "hemera" (day), is nothing more than an alternative designation for the day we are used to. Anything that is considered nuctemerone, accordingly, lasts less than 24 hours.
7. Item
In Medieval Europe, a point, also called a point, was used to represent a quarter of an hour.
8. Quadrant
And the point's neighbor by epoch, the quadrant, defined a quarter of a day - a period of 6 hours.
9. Fifteen
After the Norman conquest, the word "Quinzieme", translated from French as "fifteen", was borrowed by the British to determine the duty, which replenished the state treasury by 15 pence from every pound earned in the country. In the early 1400s, the term also acquired a religious context: it began to be used to indicate the day of an important church holiday and two full weeks following it. So Quinzieme turned into a 15-day period.
10. Scruple
The word "Scrupulus", translated from Latin as "small sharp stone", previously served as a pharmaceutical unit of weight measurement equal to 1/24 ounce (about 1.3 grams). In the 17th century, the scruple, which became a symbol for a small volume, expanded its meaning. It came to be used to indicate 1/60 of a circle (minute), 1/60 of a minute (seconds) and 1/60 of a day (24 minutes). Now, having lost its former meaning, scruple has transformed into scrupulousness - attentiveness to trifles.
And some more time values:
1 attosecond (one billionth of a billionth of a second)
The fastest processes that scientists are able to timed are measured in attoseconds. With the help of the most advanced laser systems, the researchers were able to obtain pulses of light lasting only 250 attoseconds. But no matter how infinitely small these time intervals may seem, they seem to be an eternity in comparison with the so-called Planck time (about 10-43 seconds), according to modern science, the shortest of all possible time intervals.
1 femtosecond (one millionth of a billionth of a second)
An atom in a molecule makes one vibration in a time from 10 to 100 femtoseconds. Even the fastest chemical reaction takes place over a period of several hundred femtoseconds. The interaction of light with the pigments of the retina of the eye, and it is this process that allows us to see the environment, lasts about 200 femtoseconds.
1 picosecond (one thousandth of a billionth of a second)
The fastest transistors operate in a time frame measured in picoseconds. Quarks, rare subatomic particles produced in powerful accelerators, have a lifetime of only one picosecond. The average duration of a hydrogenic bond between water molecules at room temperature is three picoseconds.
1 nanosecond (billionth of a second)
A ray of light passing through an airless space can cover a distance of only thirty centimeters during this time. A microprocessor in a personal computer takes two to four nanoseconds to execute one command, such as adding two numbers. Another rare subatomic particle, the K meson has a lifetime of 12 nanoseconds.
1 microsecond (millionth of a second)
During this time, a beam of light in a vacuum will cover a distance of 300 meters, the length of about three football fields. A sound wave at sea level is capable of covering a distance equal to only one third of a millimeter in the same period of time. It will take 23 microseconds for a stick of dynamite to explode, the fuse of which has burned out to the end.
1 millisecond (thousandth of a second)
The shortest exposure time in a conventional camera. The familiar fly flaps its wings once every three milliseconds. Bee - once every five milliseconds. Each year, the moon orbits the earth two milliseconds slower as its orbit gradually expands.
1/10 second
Blink an eye. This is what we will have time to do within the specified period. It takes just that long for the human ear to distinguish the echo from the original sound. The Voyager 1 spacecraft, heading out of the solar system, moves two kilometers from the sun during this time. In a tenth of a second, the hummingbird flaps its wings seven times.
1 second
The contraction of the heart muscle of a healthy person lasts exactly this time. In one second, the Earth, revolving around the sun, covers a distance of 30 kilometers. During this time, our star itself manages to cover a path of 274 kilometers, rushing through the galaxy at great speed. The moonlight will not have time to reach the Earth during this time interval.
1 minute
During this time, the brain of a newborn baby gains up to two milligrams in weight. The heart of a shrew manages to contract 1000 times. The average person can say 150 words or read 250 words during this time. Light from the sun reaches the Earth in eight minutes. When Mars is at its closest distance from Earth, sunlight bouncing off the surface of the Red Planet reaches us in less than four minutes.
1 hour
This is how long it takes for the reproducing cells to split in half. In one hour, 150 Zhigulis leave the assembly line of the Volga Automobile Plant. Light from Pluto, the most distant planet in the solar system, reaches Earth in five hours and twenty minutes.
1 day
For humans, this is perhaps the most natural time unit based on the rotation of the Earth. According to modern science, the length of the day is 23 hours 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds. The rotation of our planet is constantly slowing down due to lunar gravity and other reasons. The human heart makes about 100,000 contractions per day, the lungs inhale about 11,000 liters of air. During the same time, a blue whale calf gains 90 kg in weight.
1 year
The Earth makes one revolution around the sun and rotates around its axis 365.26 times, the average level of the world's oceans rises by 1 to 2.5 millimeters, and 45 federal elections are being held in Russia. It will take 4.3 years for light from the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, to reach Earth. It will take roughly the same amount of time for surface ocean currents to circumnavigate the globe.
1st century
During this time, the Moon will move away from the Earth by another 3.8 meters, but the giant sea turtle can live as much as 177 years. The most modern CD can last over 200 years.
1 million years
A spaceship traveling at the speed of light will not cover even half the way to the Andromeda galaxy (it is located at a distance of 2.3 million light years from Earth). The most massive stars, blue supergiants (they are millions of times brighter than the Sun) burn out during about this time. Due to shifts in tectonic layers of the Earth, North America will move away from Europe by about 30 kilometers.
1 billion years
It took approximately that long for our Earth to cool down after its formation. For oceans to appear on it, single-celled life would arise, and instead of an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide, an atmosphere rich in oxygen would be established. During this time, the Sun passed four times in its orbit around the center of the Galaxy.
Since the universe has only existed for 12-14 billion years, time units exceeding a billion years are rarely used. However, scientists, experts in cosmology, believe that the universe will probably continue after the last star goes out (in a hundred trillion years) and the last black hole evaporates (in 10100 years). So the Universe still has a much longer path to go than it has already gone.