0:00:00.616,0:00:02.490
What I've done here is[br]I've copied and pasted

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a bunch of pictures[br]that signify events

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in our history, when[br]you think about history

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on a grander scale, that most[br]of us have some relation to

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or we kind of have heard it[br]talked about a little bit.

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And the whole point[br]of this is to try

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to understand, or try[br]to begin to understand,

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how long 13.7 billion years is.

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So just to start off,[br]I have here-- this

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is the best depiction[br]I could find

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where it didn't have copyrights.

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This is from NASA--[br]of the Big Bang.

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And I've talked about[br]it several times.

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The Big Bang occurred[br]13.7 billion years ago.

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And then if we go a[br]little bit forward,

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actually a lot forward,[br]we get to the formation

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of our actual solar[br]system and the Earth.

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This is kind of the[br]protoplanetary disk

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or a depiction of a[br]protoplanetary disk forming

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around our young Sun.

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And so this right here[br]is 4.5 billion years ago.

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Now this over here-- once again,[br]these aren't pictures of them.

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These are just depictions[br]because no one was there

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with a camera.

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This is what we think[br]the asteroid that

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killed the dinosaurs looked like[br]when it was impacting Earth.

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And it killed the dinosaurs[br]65 million years ago.

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So until then, we[br]had land dinosaurs.

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And then this, as far as[br]the current theories go,

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got rid of them.

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Now, we'll fast forward[br]a little bit more.

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At about 3 million years ago--[br]let me do this in a color

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that you can see--[br]about 3 million,

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so three million years ago,[br]our ancestors look like this.

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This is Australopithecus[br]afarensis.

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This is I think a depiction[br]of-- this is Lucy.

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I believe the theory is that all[br]of us have some DNA from her.

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But this was 3[br]million years ago.

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And you fast forward some[br]more and you actually

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have the first modern humans[br]appearing on the planet, people

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that looked and thought[br]like you and me.

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This is 200,000 years ago.

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That's right over here.

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Obviously, this drawing[br]was done much later.

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But this is a depiction of[br]a modern human, so 200,000

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years ago.

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And then you fast[br]forward even more.

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And I don't want to[br]keep picking on Jesus.

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I did that with him[br]getting on the jet liner.

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And I genuinely don't mean[br]any offense to anyone.

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I just keep picking Jesus[br]because frankly our calendar is

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kind of-- he's a good person[br]that most people know about,

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2,000 years ago.

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And so when we[br]associate kind of a lot

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of modern history[br]occurring after his birth.

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So this right here is[br]obviously a painting

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of the birth of Jesus.

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And this is 2,000 years ago.

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And then this might be a[br]little bit American-centric.

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But the Declaration[br]of Independence, it

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was a major event.

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Actually even on[br]a worldwide basis,

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it was the first[br]secular democracy

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based on a kind of a[br]constitutional democracy that

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showed up on the planet.

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They said we don't want the[br]king of England anymore.

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And this was about[br]234 years ago.

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And I always remembered[br]because I was born almost

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on the 200th anniversary.

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So you just have to[br]add my age to 200.

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So this is 234 years ago.

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So these are all events[br]or periods of time

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that we've heard about[br]and we've talked about.

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And people throw around[br]these type of years.

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But what I want to[br]do in this video

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is relate it to time scales[br]that we can comprehend.

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So instead of the Big Bang[br]occurring 13.7 billion years

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ago, let's pretend like[br]it occurred 10 years ago.

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Because most of us, especially[br]if you're over the age of 10,

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can kind of understand[br]what 10 years is.

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It's a very, very[br]long period of time.

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But something that's well[br]within our lifetimes,

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well within our experience.

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So let's say the 13.7 billion--[br]instead of saying the Big

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Bang occurred 13.7[br]billion years ago, let's

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pretend like it[br]occurred 10 years ago.

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And if we pretend that[br]it occurred 10 years ago,

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let's think about how many[br]years, or minutes, or hours

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ago each of these events[br]would have occurred.

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So if Big Bang, which is[br]really 13.7 billion years,

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if it really had[br]occurred 10 years ago,

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and we scaled everything down,[br]if we had scaled everything

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down, then the Earth[br]would have been

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created about 3.3 years ago.

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So this would have[br]been 3.3 years ago.

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So there's nothing kind[br]of amazing about this.

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This is a significant fraction[br]of the age of the universe.

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So not that mind[br]blowing just yet.

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But if we go all the way to[br]when the dinosaurs were extinct,

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the last land dinosaurs, now[br]the 65 million years-- and this

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will give you an appreciation of[br]the difference between million

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and billion-- if the universe[br]was only 10 years old,

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then the dinosaurs would have[br]been extinct 17 days ago.

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Not even a month[br]ago, the dinosaurs

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would have been extinct.

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So if the universe was created[br]when I was just graduated--

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well, I'm in my '30s[br]now, so when I was 24--

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just last month, the dinosaurs[br]would have gone extinct.

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And it gets even crazier.

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17 days ago, the dinosaurs[br]would have extinct.

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Australopithecus[br]afarensis would have

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walked on the Earth 19[br]hours ago, yesterday.

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19 hours ago, she would[br]have been walking around

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on the planet.

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And modern humans wouldn't have[br]shown up until 80 minutes ago,

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80 minutes, a[br]little over an hour.

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There wasn't even[br]a modern human.

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Then the universe[br]was 10 years, it

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didn't take until[br]just very recently,

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the last hour, for us to see[br]someone that looks something

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like us, looks and[br]thinks something like us.

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Fast forward even more,[br]the birth of Jesus,

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if the universe was 10 years[br]old instead of 13.7 billion--

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and we scaled everything[br]down-- then the birth of Jesus

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would have been 46 seconds ago.

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And then if we fast[br]forward all the way

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to the Declaration[br]of Independence,

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this would have occurred[br]five seconds ago.

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So this isn't quite[br]as mind blowing

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as the scale of the universe.

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But in my mind, this is[br]still pretty amazing.

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I mean all that's happened[br]since 1776 on a global basis

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could have been[br]encapsulated in five seconds

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if the age of the[br]universe was 10 years.

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So hopefully, that gives you[br]a little bit of a perspective.

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In the next video, instead[br]of condensing things in time,

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I'm going to compare this scale[br]to kind of a distance scale.

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So we can kind of say,[br]hey, if the universe was

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the number of[br]pixels on my screen,

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how big would each[br]of these things be?