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:

    After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I’d read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers—especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.
    Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)

    That age will be rich indeed when those relics which we call Classics, and the still older and more than classic but even less known Scriptures of the nations, shall have still further accumulated, when the Vaticans shall be filled with Vedas and Zendavestas and Bibles, with Homers and Dantes and Shakespeares, and all the centuries to come shall have successively deposited their trophies in the forum of the world. By such a pile we may hope to scale heaven at last.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)