Time Scale

A time scale specifies divisions of time.

  • Time standard, a specification of either the rate at which time passes, or points in time, or both
  • Duration (disambiguation), a quantity of time
  • Geological time scale, a scale that divides up the history of Earth into scientifically meaningful periods
  • In astronomy and astrophysics:
    • Dynamical time scale either (in stellar physics) measures the length of time over which changes in one part of a body can be communicated to the rest of that body, or (in celestial mechanics) is a realization of a time-like argument based on a dynamical theory
    • Nuclear time scale, estimates the lifetime of a star based solely on its rate of fuel consumption
    • Thermal time scale, estimates the lifetime of a star once its fuel reserves at its center are used up or if they were to disappear
  • In cosmology and particle physics:
    • Planck time, the time scale beneath which quantum effects are comparable in significance to gravitational effects
  • In mathematics:
    • Time scale calculus, the unification of the theory of difference equations with differential equations
  • In music:
    • rhythm, a temporal pattern of events
    • Time scale (music), divides up music into sections based on the scope

Famous quotes containing the words time and/or scale:

    “Beauty depends on size as well as symmetry. No very small animal can be beautiful, for looking at it takes so small a portion of time that the impression of it will be confused. Nor can any very large one, for a whole view of it cannot be had at once, and so there will be no unity and completeness.”
    —Aristotle (384 B.C.–322 B.C.)

    “The Humanity of men and women is inversely proportional to their Numbers. A Crowd is no more human than an Avalanche or a Whirlwind. A rabble of men and women stands lower in the scale of moral and intellectual being than a herd of Swine or of Jackals.”
    —Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)