Every day consists of 24 hours. Everybody knows that. But is it really true. Both from mathematical and time (well) spent perspective. 24 hour day is there for us from the day we were born. Then in school we are taught basic elements of time and how it works. I say “basic” because most educational institutions don’t delve deeper into how (and) why we believe a day consists of 24 hours.
What if I told you that this is simply not true? It is purely not mathematically, nor astronomically true. Namely, it only takes 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.0916 seconds for the Earth to turn once its axis. Interesting, huh?
So, that would in turn mean that we have less hours (or minutes) in our day than we initially thought.
Not so fast.
Here I would like to bring your attention to the actual topic of this chapter, and this is how we are spending our time. 24 hours a day, or 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.0916, to be more precise, is not the same for everyone. It is in fact completely different for every individual on this Earth.
Time well spent
Some people spend their days sitting on the couch every day. Some people are stoned all day every day. Most people spend their days (and lives in completely the same way living repetitive patterns). Other people are notorious workaholics so it would seem that they spend their days in more productive ways than couch sitters. This could be the case, but it doesn’t have to be. Namely, the output one person yields in a day depends on what that person really thinks his or her values are. This output is hard to calculate. But one thing we can agree on – and this is that the average person today can use most of their hours today completely differently as it was the case say, 1000 years ago.
Previously people didn’t have cars, electricity or normal food supplies. If we go even further in history then people only had different tools to help them hunt animals for food. So their 24 hours consisted of basically two to three activities. Hunting, sleeping, and copulating.
Ok, to be fair perhaps they did some completely different thing that we’re not aware of in today’s time. Perhaps they ate mushrooms the whole day and bent time and space constantly, thus prolonging (or shortening) their normal days. But this we cannot know.
Modern times vs ancient times
Nonetheless, I think we can all agree that modern humans have more hours in a day because of everything what is available to us today. For example, if today I would like to send a message to someone on a different side of the Earth it would take me only a few seconds. On the other hand, if imaginary Joe wanted to execute that same activity (sending message) 2000 years ago, it would take months if not years. Say that Joe from Ancient Rome wanted to send a message to someone in another Empire. How long would it take? And with what? What would be the medium for sending that message? Horses perhaps? Pigeons? It does not actually matter but it again paints the picture how people of today have significantly more time at their disposal, if they decide to spend it wisely.
Let us take another example. Imagine what people needed to go through in prehistoric times just to travel from one part of the continent to another. For instance, because of freezing temperature, or to hunt. If, say, one tribe of 100 people started travel, then somewhere along the way, they would lose majority of members due to weather conditions, illnesses or being eaten by other animals. And how long did it take them to travel 5000 kilometers (3106 miles)? Well normally they traveled around 15 to 25 miles a day. So, if we use an average of 20 miles per day then they spent 155 days for that activity.
Today If I would like to travel from Europe to USA it would take me around 7 hours for shortest flight or 10 hours on average.
Just imagine – 7 hours versus 155 days!
So then, think for a second about the value of time in various times. Surely, we can conclude that we now have more hours at our disposal than ancient people. Or even people who lived 500 or 700 years ago.
700 years ago, or to be more precise, 676 years ago, the Black Death (also known as Pestilence or Plague) ravaged across Europe. How did people spend their time during that horrible period of 7 years (1346 – 1353)? We know some facts about that period but we really don’t know how people felt during day-to-day activities. Did they think about how to spend time more wisely, or is a day really 24 hours or 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.0916 seconds? No. They were solely preoccupied about survival. It is estimated that 75,000,000–200,000,00 people died.
Horrifying beyond comprehension.
Now, of course this is a rather blunt comparison and example of how time in a day is of different value considering different circumstances.
Information, wave equation and time
So then, let’s use another example. In one of my previous posts, I talked about Information overload and how it is a huge problem in modern times. I also mentioned that the average person today receives 100x more information in an hour than the average person in ancient times in a week or month. Of course, this could be good and this could be bad, depending on the types of information received. Nevertheless, in today’s lifetime, regular people have so much opportunity to gain experience, grow and entertain themselves.
In ancient history not so much. Or perchance not so ancient history. For instance, what did people need to do to learn something about specific physic theorem 200 years ago? Let’s use example of wave equation that was discovered by French scientist Jean-Baptiste le Rond d’Alembert.
So say that average Joe was curious about wave equation sometime in 1800’s. His head has been exploding for days when thinking about possible general solution to the one dimensional wave equation ( u(x, t) = F(x − ct) + G(x + ct) ). So, what to do in that case? First find nearby library. Somehow travel to that library. Find the right book (if the right book existed in this library). Then what? Spend numerous hours reading a book and not understanding most things. Then, bingo – after plentiful of days, he finds what he wants.
Today?
Simple. Just write “wave equation” in Google search and there you go. In a matter of seconds.
There could be numerous of such examples, but I think the picture is clear. 24 hours is not the same for everyone especially if we extrapolate time from the beginnings of humanity.
Time we spend on this Earth is relatively short and the most important thing is to spend it wisely. This could mean different things for different people but one thing that should for sure be the main motivation is to always remember:
“Memento mori”
Remember that you will die (certainly). This will give you more hours in a day and more hours in life.
