Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Share Their Favorite Mind-Bending Facts About Time

Time is of the essence. And time is not definable. Those are lessons we learn as we get older; as times passes and fluctuates in front of us.

Time is always fleeting yet always catches up to us. I find myself shocked when I wake up on certain days and realize I'm a particular age of my parent that sticks out for me.

Like, how did that happen? I guess I should just be thankful I'm still here to witness it all.

Redditor u/TW1103 wanted to discuss the meaning... of time and all of its affects by asking:

What fact really puts the scale of time into an insane perspective?

Ok, who is watching the clock? Those seconds aren't going to count themselves. The only way to understand time is to be its witness. Although that can get depressing. Let's focus on the light and cool.

History...

Calculate Figure It Out GIF by OriginalsGiphy

"If you are an 80-year-old American, you have lived through approximately 1/3 of our nation's entire history."

- NeedsMoreTuba

Those Days...

"The 80s were 40 years ago."

- ijustneedanametouse

"This is what messes me up because I was born in 82 and graduated high school in 2000 so for some reason my brain is stuck on the 80's being twenty years ago. The 70's thirty years ago etc etc. I have to stop and realize sometimes that my concept of how long ago things happened is way off."

- offspring515

Time goes by...

"We observe that light travels at 186,000 miles a second, but given the vast size of the observable universe, that's a snail's pace. But from the point of view of a particle of light, time doesn't even exist."

- starfish80

"Time slows down as you approach the speed of light, and theoretically stops completely when you reach the speed of light."

- treetreehasakid

Years Gone By...

"MLK Jr. and Anne Frank were born in the same year."

- Willish32

" Betty White was born in 1922. Automatically pre-sliced packaged bread loaves became commercially available in 1928. Betty White is six years older than sliced bread."

- PaniqueAttaque

Long Live the Queen!

queen elizabeth images GIFGiphy

"The queen and Marilyn Monroe would've been the same age."

- Nice_Swordfish_69420

"And Marilyn Monroe and Andy Griffith were born on the same day!"

- osme1

I swear Liz is going to outlive dirt. Wait, I believe she already has. Well she won't be alone, she'll have Betty White. At least she better have Betty. Time is nothing without Queen Betty.

TV Time

Season 2 Omg GIF by Paramount+Giphy

"Happy Days was a TV show made in the 1970s-80s about teenagers in the 1950s. Similarly, That 70s Show was made in the 90s-00s about teenagers in the 70s. If a similar show were to be made today, it would be about teenagers in the 2000s."

- VVillyD

A Croc

"If a T-Rex imagined a creature as ancient as the T-Rex is to us, it would be a Stegosaurus. If that Stegosaurus imagined a creature as ancient as the Stegosaurus is to us, it would be a Crocodile. If that Crocodile imagined a creature as ancient as that Crocodile is to us, it would be a Shark."

- FamousMiddleName

On the Clock

"On a twenty four hour clock the amount of time that humans have been on the earth would total around five seconds."

- Apprehensive-Pin1474

"How about this one: If Homo Habilus first appeared at midnight, 24 hours ago, that means the first Homo Sapiens appeared at 9:25 PM, or about 2 and a half hours ago. The first human civilization, in lower Mesopotamia, appeared at 11:57 PM, or about 3 minutes ago."

"The Western Roman Empire fell at 11:59 PM, or 1 minute ago. Everything that has happened since - the Crusades, the Plague, the discovery of the New World, the world wars, all of it - has happened in the last minute of human existence."

- Red_AtNight

And that's just OUR Sun...

"The span of our lives are so insignificantly small that our Sun will last another 5 billion years. That's 9 zeros people. Our eldest live to around 100 in the best places. That's 50,000,000 (50 million) times longer than any person can reasonably expect to live. And that's just OUR Sun. The universe as a whole has probably existed for magnitudes longer than that already and will continue to exist until the end of time as we know it."

- LoadingTOS

Tell Me a Story

william shakespeare GIF by will herringGiphy

"We know what a good storyteller Shakespeare was but there were Greek playwrights who wrote shows nearly 2,000 years earlier that are pretty good, too."

- Ok-Age-2923

I hate time. Only because I'm petty and irritated of the amount I squandered. That's neither here nor there though. Time marches on and continues to amaze. I'll keep watching.

Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

The Duffer Brothers
Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Netflix

The Duffer Brothers Just Made A Surprising Comment About The Future Of 'Stranger Things'—And Fans Are Cringing

Fans haven't exactly been overjoyed about the final season of Stranger Things, and they're not thrilled about the show's potential future either, it seems.

After the show's creators, brothers Ross and Matt Duffer, gave Entertainment Tonight an unusually candid take on what the Netflix series means to them, fans are crying foul.

Keep ReadingShow less
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Meidas Touch Network

AOC Epically Shuts Down Fox News Producer's Request That She Go On Jesse Watters' Show

A video filmed Wednesday night outside the Capitol Building, by Meidas Touch Network correspondent and Migrant Insider editor Pablo Manríquez, caught New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) holding Fox News personality Jesse Watters accountable for his past words and actions.

The video quickly went viral.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Trump Was Asked If There Are Any Limits To His Power—And His Response Should Alarm Everyone

President Donald Trump gave a chilling answer when asked, in an interview with the New York Times, whether there are any constraints on his power in the wake of his invasion of Venezuela and ouster of the country's dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Trump spoke to the publication amid heightened concerns that the United States could take control of Greenland. Earlier this week, the White House said it was not ruling out military action to acquire Greenland from Denmark, a NATO ally.

Keep ReadingShow less
Lost and Found center
Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash

People Who Work In Lost And Found Share Surprising Things No One Came Back For

Perhaps one of the greatest rushes of dopamine we can experience is running over to a lost and found location, and discovering that some kind person dropped our misplaced item off there.

So it's hard to imagine why a person wouldn't try to be reunited with their lost items.

Keep ReadingShow less
Michelle Obama; Screenshot of Laura Ingraham
Marcus Ingram/Getty Images; Fox News

Laura Ingraham Just Admitted That Michelle Obama Was Right About Something—And Hell Is Officially Frozen Solid

Fox News personality Laura Ingraham stunned viewers by taking back remarks she made about former First Lady Michelle Obama, who'd claimed that poor neighborhoods are often "food deserts."

Ingraham spoke with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins as the Trump administration on Wednesday released updated dietary guidelines for Americans, emphasizing whole and minimally processed foods, reduced consumption of refined carbohydrates, and what officials described as a “war” on added sugars.

Keep ReadingShow less