time scales
Spans of duration
Time scales are frameworks for measuring or conceptualizing duration.
Different phenomena operate on different time scales: geological processes unfold over millions of years, historical events over centuries, daily life over hours and minutes.
On evolutionary time scales, humans appeared only recently.
Scientists choose appropriate time scales for their subject—cosmological, biological, or human.
- epochsDistinct historical stretches
- eonsImmense spans of time
- periodsSpans of time
- durationLength of existence
- chronologyTemporal ordering of events
era · millennium · timeline · half-life · carbon dating · radiometric dating · intervals · lifetimes · ephemeris · centuries · spans · dating methods · ages · ice ages · decades · short term · generations · human history
- timekeepingclock, watch, watches, clocks, calendar
- timelinestimelines, chronology, chronologies, historical periods, eras
- Alien Lifeextraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial intelligence, alien intelligence, first contact, biosignatures
- stratigraphystrata, rock layers, formations, beds, layers
temporal extension
time scalesinstants
Infinitesimal time spans
points in time · moments · point in time · split second · snapshots