Hey there, curious minds! Let’s dive into a fascinating topic about numbers and time. Imagine five balloons. Easy, right? Now, try picturing a thousand balloons. Not so simple anymore! Our brains are great at many things, but they struggle with really big numbers.
It’s not entirely our fault. Long ago, humans only needed to count small things like fingers or the number of people in a group. Big numbers weren’t important until we started exploring science and history, where we deal with huge numbers.
Deep time is the term used to describe Earth’s long history, which spans millions and billions of years. Our brains find it tough to understand these vast amounts of time. For example, a billion is a thousand times bigger than a million. While a million seconds is about 11.5 days, a billion seconds is around 31.7 years. That’s a big difference!
Did you know Cleopatra lived closer to the first Taco Bell opening than to the building of the Great Pyramid? And the T. rex lived closer to us than to the Stegosaurus! These facts show how tricky it is to understand deep time.
Let’s explore Earth’s history to see how long ago things happened. Imagine a pink string representing different events, with distances showing how many thousands, millions, or billions of years ago they occurred.
About 4.5 billion years ago, Earth was formed. Soon after, the moon appeared, followed by liquid water and Earth’s atmosphere, which was mostly carbon dioxide, ammonia, and methane.
A billion years later, the first living organisms appeared. These simple creatures are our ancestors! For a long time, there was no oxygen until cyanobacteria started photosynthesis, releasing oxygen and causing a massive extinction event.
About 2.2 billion years ago, the first eukaryotes, or complex cells, emerged. Then, 710 million years ago, the supercontinent Rodinia broke apart. By 600 million years ago, multicellular organisms appeared, leading to a diversity of life during the Cambrian explosion 540 million years ago.
470 million years ago, the first land plants appeared. By 400 million years ago, insects, amphibians, trees, and sharks existed. Coal deposits formed 359 million years ago, and reptiles appeared 315 million years ago. The supercontinent Pangea formed 280 million years ago.
230 million years ago, flowering plants appeared, and the Atlantic Ocean opened 200 million years ago. By 180 million years ago, mammals and birds emerged, but dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. Dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago due to an asteroid impact.
56 million years ago, the earliest primates appeared. Fast forward to 40 million years ago, India collided with Asia. Australopithecus, an early human ancestor, appeared, along with stone tools and controlled fire use. Modern humans came much later.
Today, all of human history fits into a tiny part of Earth’s timeline. The last Neanderthals, woolly mammoths, and the rise of civilizations are just small threads in Earth’s vast history. Remember, humans are newcomers in this long story.
Even though we age, we’re still very young in the grand scheme of things. Stay curious and appreciate the history around you!
Thanks to Curiosity Stream for supporting PBS Digital Studios. Curiosity Stream offers documentaries and nonfiction titles, including “Deep Time History.” Learn more at curiositystream.com/smart. And if you love deep time, check out PBS Eons!
Imagine you’re at a party with five balloons. Now, try to picture a thousand balloons. Create a drawing or a digital collage that helps you visualize what a thousand balloons might look like. This activity will help you understand how big numbers can be represented visually.
Create a timeline of Earth’s history using a long piece of paper or string. Mark significant events like the formation of Earth, the appearance of the first life forms, and the extinction of dinosaurs. This will help you grasp the concept of deep time and the vastness of Earth’s history.
Play a game where you compare different historical events to understand their time differences. For example, compare the time between the T. rex and the Stegosaurus with the time between Cleopatra and the first Taco Bell. This will help you better understand the concept of deep time.
Calculate how many seconds are in a million and a billion. Then, convert these numbers into days and years. This activity will help you understand the difference between a million and a billion in a tangible way.
Write a short story or comic strip that narrates the journey of Earth’s history from its formation to the present day. Include key events and time periods to illustrate the concept of deep time. This creative exercise will help you reinforce your understanding of Earth’s timeline.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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Thanks to Curiosity Stream for supporting PBS Digital Studios! Hey, smart people! Joe here. Picture five balloons. That was easy. Now picture a thousand. That wasn’t that hard, was it? Not so fast, smartypants! That’s only three hundred ninety-nine balloons. That’s a thousand! My point is, we struggle with imagining big numbers. The human brain is good at so much, yet really bad at grasping large quantities.
This difficulty isn’t entirely our fault. During our evolution, we only needed to pay attention to small numbers—like fingers, toes, or how many people lived in our clan. Beyond that, it was just “there are many mammoths over there.” That worked fine until we invented science and history and started using really big numbers.
When it comes to understanding deep time, we really struggle. Deep time refers to the geologic timescale, the history of the Earth and everything on it. We’re talking millions and billions of years, not just tens or hundreds. Our brains have a hard time putting these vast magnitudes into perspective. For instance, a billion is a thousand times bigger than a million, but a million seconds is about 11.5 days, while a billion seconds is around 31.7 years. That can be mind-boggling!
Did you know Cleopatra lived closer to the opening of the first Taco Bell than to the construction of the Great Pyramid? And T. rex lived closer to us than to Stegosaurus! This shows how poorly we understand deep time.
So, let’s take a journey through Earth’s history to see how long ago things really happened and how much time has passed between significant events. We’ll use this pink string to represent different events in Earth’s history, with distances cut to scale based on how many thousands, millions, or even billions of years ago they occurred.
Let’s start! We are about four and a half billion years ago at the formation of the Earth—a major event in Earth’s history. Next, the moon formed. Then, we have liquid water, which is crucial for life, and the formation of Earth’s atmosphere. Initially, it was mostly carbon dioxide, ammonia, and methane, with very little oxygen.
After about a billion years, the first living organisms appeared. These were simple, but they are your ancestors, so show some respect! For the first billion years of life on Earth, there was no oxygen until cyanobacteria showed up and began photosynthesis, releasing oxygen as a waste product. This led to one of the largest mass extinction events in Earth’s history.
Fast forward to 2.2 billion years ago, when the first eukaryotes emerged—cells with organelles like the nucleus and mitochondria. Then, 710 million years ago, the supercontinent Rodinia broke up.
At 600 million years ago, we see the first multicellular organisms. Up until this point, all life was single-celled, but now we have teamwork and cooperation. Around 540 million years ago, during the Cambrian explosion, there was a significant increase in the diversity of life.
By 470 million years ago, the first true land plants appeared. Then, 400 million years ago, we find the first insects, amphibians, trees, and shark fossils.
359 million years ago, the first coal deposits formed. By 315 million years ago, the first reptiles appeared. Then, 280 million years ago, the supercontinent Pangea came together.
Fast forward to 230 million years ago for the first flowering plants, and 200 million years ago when the Atlantic Ocean opened up. By 180 million years ago, we see the earliest mammals and birds, but dinosaurs were still around.
65 million years ago, the dinosaurs went extinct due to an asteroid impact. Then, 56 million years ago, the earliest primates appeared. Fast forward to 40 million years ago when India collided with Asia.
Australopithecus, an early walking hominid, showed up, along with the first stone tools and the controlled use of fire. Anatomically modern humans appeared much later.
Here we are in the present, where everything we consider human history happens in less than a millimeter from the end of our timeline. The last Neanderthal, the extinction of woolly mammoths, and the rise of human civilizations are just tiny threads in the vast history of Earth.
The moral of the story is that most events happened a really long time ago, and humans are relatively new here. So, take a moment to appreciate the history around you.
On a bright note, even though I keep getting older, I’m still very young in the grand scheme of things. Stay curious!
A big thank you to Curiosity Stream for supporting PBS Digital Studios. Curiosity Stream is a subscription streaming service offering documentaries and nonfiction titles from various filmmakers, including original series like “Deep Time History.” You can learn more at curiositystream.com/smart.
And if you wish there was a whole channel devoted to deep time, good news! Check out our friends at PBS Eons!
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This version maintains the original content’s essence while ensuring clarity and appropriateness.
Earth – The planet on which we live, consisting of land, water, and an atmosphere that supports life. – Earth is the third planet from the Sun and is unique because it supports a wide variety of life forms.
Time – A continuous, measurable quantity in which events occur in a sequence from the past through the present to the future. – Geologists study rock layers to understand how Earth’s surface has changed over time.
History – The study of past events, particularly in human affairs or Earth’s development. – The history of Earth includes the formation of continents, oceans, and the evolution of life.
Organisms – Living things, such as plants, animals, and microorganisms, that have the ability to grow, reproduce, and respond to their environment. – Scientists classify organisms into different groups based on their characteristics and evolutionary history.
Evolution – The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the Earth. – The theory of evolution explains how species adapt to their environments over long periods of time.
Atmosphere – The layer of gases surrounding Earth, which is essential for life as it provides oxygen and protects us from harmful solar radiation. – The atmosphere plays a crucial role in regulating Earth’s climate and weather patterns.
Plants – Multicellular organisms that typically produce their own food through photosynthesis and are a fundamental part of Earth’s ecosystems. – Plants release oxygen into the atmosphere, which is essential for the survival of most living organisms.
Mammals – A class of warm-blooded vertebrates that have hair or fur and whose females produce milk to feed their young. – Mammals, including humans, are characterized by their ability to regulate body temperature and care for their offspring.
Dinosaurs – A group of reptiles that were the dominant terrestrial animals during the Mesozoic era, millions of years ago. – Fossils of dinosaurs provide important clues about life on Earth long before humans existed.
Humans – Members of the species Homo sapiens, characterized by their ability to think, communicate, and create complex societies. – Humans have significantly impacted Earth’s environment and continue to explore ways to live sustainably.
