The cosmic calendar
Go through the cosmic year, then zoom in on December, on December 31, and on the last minute.
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What just happened (read it after the experiment)
Carl Sagan came up with this calendar in 1977, in The Dragons of Eden: the Big Bang on January 1 at midnight, today on December 31 at midnight.
On this scale, a day is worth 38 million years, and a second more than 400 years. The first modern humans arrive on December 31 around 11:48 PM; a human life lasts less than the blink of an eye.
We are newcomers in a very old universe.
More experiments
Sources
- Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden, 1977.