Time is slippery stuff

Roy Batty 'Off World Replicant' Blade Runner

                                              “All the moments will be lost in time,     
                                               Like tears washed away in the rain”

Every click of the counter records one second that has passed. Every sixty seconds one more minute has elapsed since the beginning of time. 

The Universe came into existence and time commenced 13750000000 years ago, that's 7231950000000000 minutes consigned to history since the 'Big Bang'.

Please note since I wrote this entry the estimated age of the Universe has been increased and now stands at  13.798 + or - 0.37 billion years.  I haven't changed my calculations for the following graphs etc.  For more information on the age of the Universe follow the link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_universe

The average number of minutes one might expect as a male living in the United Kingdom at this time is 410774760. On my birthday this year I will have been alive for 33135480 minutes. "I now know how Roy Batty felt"!

Showing the relative time periods that have elapsed from the beginning of time is difficult because of the extremely large range of years involved. The graphs have been drawn with the events shown up the Y axis and time elapsed along the X axis. The numbers shown along the X axis are the powers to base 10 to which the decimal number after the point is raised. For example: time elapsed since the birth of Jesus Christ is given as 4.201 which can be transposed to 0.201 x 10000 = 2010 years.

The trouble with time is just when you think you've got the hang of it, in reality and relatively speaking, you haven't.  Sitting in my armchair,time always seems to tick-tock-tick away at the same rate but if I were in a star-ship travelling at half the speed of light, 'Time' would dilate and go more slowly than in my sitting room.

The Mathematical proof of Time Dilation

As I probably have less than 8 million minutes left, I might be best advised to volunteer as a 'Star-ship Trooper".  I must find out where Toot put my towel!