Four ways to understand the Earth's age - Joshua M. Sneideman

View full lesson: ed.ted.com/less...
The Earth is 4.6 billion years old -- but how can humans relate to a number so colossal, and where do we fit on the geologic timeline? Comparing the Earth's lifetime to one calendar year, events like the extinction of dinosaurs and Columbus setting sail took place relatively recently. Joshua M. Sneideman reminds us of our time and place in the universe.
Lesson by Joshua M. Sneideman, animation by Powerhouse Animation Studios Inc.

[@cimmik]

Human history has just begun. Can't imagine what we will be like when we have been around for a couple of weeks. Imagine if we become as tough as the dinosaurs and as smart as... humans. I really hope we either become smarter or dumber, so we stop harming ourselves.

[@bonnie43uk]

i love the shaving of the fingernail analogy. When put like that, we're a tiny drop in the ocean of life on the planet.

[@coolpeople4061]

And .32 seconds before class I nearly drowned in a jacooze at the age of 4

[@coolpeople4061]

Which I got saved 4 seconds

[@coolpeople4061]

Error

[@coolpeople4061]

And 0.001 seconds later I got saved

[@coolpeople4061]

And 0.000000001 seconds before class I played minecraft

[@thalespro9995]

Did u really nearly drown

[@reese5859]

My brain hurts from watching this video, I am so confused by it

[@user-gb5wl1fn1e]

same

[@MCM686]

It is not clear.

[@chiragjain2152]

Showing whole earth history in calendar very good and nice.

[@jhopeismyhope7208]

So what exactly are the 4 ways to understand the Earth's age??

[@urchowmein]

lmao

[@DaChristianYute]

This should’ve been name 4 ways to try to indoctrinate you to believe what we believe

[@artheart5652]

Right?! 😂

[@BrettVarve]

I'm not sure how you missed the analogies, but here they are - I even numbered them, so you won't get lost! 1. Compressing earth's history into a calendar year. 2. Writing the history of Earth, using a single sheet of paper to represent 1 year of time. 3. Female human arm span 4. Timeline of human birth to first day of high school. I hope this helped!

[@benial870]

​@@DaChristianYuteits funny when people use "indoctrination" to describe someone having a different view

[@ethanireland939]

If all of Earth's history was compressed into 12 hours, all of human history would last only about 28 seconds.

[@TheBuddyPal]

Less than that.

[@yourmotherlovesme69]

that is mind blowing

[@wonjaechoi4714]

No. Eleven hours and fifty nine minutes fifty nine point ninety nine seconds

[@Antenox]

No one seriously thought the Earth was flat. For example, from ancient times, people observed that ships going over the horizon disappeared hull first, which meant the Earth had a curvature. And during the time of Alexander the Great, scientists actually measured the Earth's diameter using trigonometry.

[@joshuasuansing4707]

I love how they specifically mention the dates

[@meghakhobragade8138]

yeah and the accurate time too

[@victoriarocco4516]

This video was super well edited!

[@WarriorOfWriters]

If something is an accepted science there's generally a reason; peer review exists so that we don't have to know EVERYTHING about science in order to accept it. I don't know entirely exactly how the numbers were achieved but I can go and find out, which is the great thing about science.

[@sanjuanvienalliec.9011]

What are the four ways mentioned in the film?

[@commoncoolchannel8588]

*this calendar* Happy christmas Dinosaurs! Oh wait, they died yesterday. Huh.

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

He's also unproven, not even indicated by any measure, unlike everything we call science. And this is why science is greater.

[@DiggerPat]

That's about the most level-headed thing a person can say on the matter, scientifically speaking.

[@the_luggage]

Wow, Ted-Ed videos of the last few years are so much better (and less US-centric), than these old ones, which are still useful. Well done on vast improvements, team!

[@RobinsonSue]

Why did you change the analogy from the calendar year? That made perfect sense; and very easy to follow just how long Earth's history is and how short human history is compared to the entirety...The stack of papers, the high school analogy, fingernail thingy, just muddled it up. IMO.

[@happyconstructor]

1:08 Merry Christmas!

[@FireCrauter]

yes, thx :3, merry christmas 24/12/2020

[@GregoryTheGr8ster]

You should have included where the introduction of the Apple II computer fits into these timelines.

[@crazy4bricksthebrickbrothe722]

That is so insignificant in comparison to even human history. How do you expect to be able to fit it in with something significant after that?

[@LiyanLee12]

It's not wise to learn more, the more we learn the more we want. And there's nothing to stop us from getting what we want. And it's not the world we want, just what keeps it alive.

[@commoncoolchannel8588]

So my birthday in this calendar is full of dinos! Cool!

[@marsmanalvarez5869]

Half-Life Time! Half-Lfe 2 Time!

[@堀田貴代-l6x]

、mんか時は

[@sagiksp4979]

My brain cells are melting from all the people in the comments saying the earth is 6000 years old.

[@skytrexz3714]

that sadly makes no sense

[@skytrexz3714]

The bible doesn't necessarily tell us the earth is 6000 years, a day for God could be 1000 years for us. We can just infer that the bible tells us that Abraham is 6000 years from the lifeline from Abraham to now. So technically the bible doesn't tell us the age of the earth. You are just guessing of the internet or some people that told you. The Bible is very vague and just saying the earth is 6000 years from the Bible is unnecessary. For all we know Abraham to Jesus just might merely be a short 6000 years. So don't trust the internet completely and don't think the bible wants to give you something so perspicious

[@coolpeople4061]

Sky TrexZ the earth is 4,600,000,000

[@leonsolade]

Carl Sagan, i remember you.

[@icebear935]

I remember Neil.

[@WarriorOfWriters]

And peer review would have been correct by the measurements of observation, we have sophisticated our methods considerably, to the point where we can determine almost everything we need to about our planet.

[@AvNotasian]

""The giant impact hypothesis states that the Moon was formed out of the debris left over from a collision between the Earth and a body the size of Mars, approximately 4.5 Gya (four and a half billion years) ago. The colliding body is sometimes called Theia, for the mythical Greek Titan who was the mother of Selene, the goddess of the Moon."

[@paigehershberger7372]

Good video, here because of covid. God bless you.

[@selamw]

I started high school 5 days ago so you just told my life kid of.

[@sutematsu]

Maybe I'm being obtuse, but how is using a calendar year, a book, an arm span, and a portion of a human lifespan to give perspective to the age of the earth "aimed at Americans?" There are a few trappings in the final scenario that seem a bit American, but overall I think the lesson did a great job of not being "aimed" at one county more than others. It's like saying that the video is aimed at Italians because they mention Rome and Christopher Columbus (who was Italian, not Spanish).

[@theravendiaries]

Joshua M. Sneideman reminds us people will believe what they want to believe. That's why we have Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and continue to tell our kids those stories also...

[@EvyWke]

Yes.

[@WarriorOfWriters]

It's not a matter of belief, when you're a student of science (in my case biology) you become aware that science is scrutinized highly by its own. Nothing is just accepted in its respective field, it is doubted until it either passes scrutiny (peer review) or dies as an idea. Science is self correcting, it is not a religion. The accepted age of the Earth is highly scrutinized and generally accepted by discplined geologists and vicariously biologists.

[@GhofraneBornThisWay]

Thank you for this, it's so cool.

[@0mchen221]

2:27 Those damn dinosaurs always destroying my sandcastles.

[@darlene9328]

I'm watching this for a school assignment...

[@profloganspace]

Earths history in a year ,A book ,Someone’s arms And as your life

[@SillyGoose2024]

Ok we get it, video. The earth is old.

[@georgewashington8338]

I was born 1.3 seconds before the bell rings...and then I attend my first day of school right as the bell rings....wow time flies

[@LarsSod]

To be fair, they are the ones that need this basic type of stuff the most.

[@izzy-artmusicvlogs1234]

On the calendar 🗓, when did the moon 🌙 form?

[@ShinyDaket]

Well, you just made me feel even younger 3:

[@MeButOnTheInternet]

it's amazing how this happened in just one year...

[@overcookedwater1947]

Ikr

[@MariaWoods99]

Great explanation.

[@sutematsu]

Damn, my American-ness has shown: I failed to notice the imperial measurements. ... ABORT THREAD!!!! (And thanks for saving me from the caps.)

[@toocoolforu]

It's true, since we evolved far enough to think about the outside world, we can consider that we have already colonize the whole galaxy. And that's the ultimate goal of species since the beginning. We are finally on the verge to bring life through eternity.

[@KetanSingh]

The singularity is 'almost' here though.

[@Markus9705]

The fun thing is that these videos are from the States.

[@WarriorOfWriters]

no; the dating methods are tested and conclusively accurate, various dating methods are employed to determine the age of the Earth. Theories are explanations (how) the facts are the conclusions drawn from the methods and the observations of natural phenomena.

[@khopeshII]

Lightyears are the measure of how much of that medium (space/time) the photon has passed through from our point of view in a given unit of measure (in this case a year), even though the photon is unaware of any passage itself. As such the concept of 'collapsed time' in relation to the origin point is irrelevent.

[@chiragjain2152]

Good ways to understand earth lifetime.

[@patmat.]

So now we have to convert your calendar to millions of years, how practical....

[@RhymLV]

Cause of the way the thought is presented.

[@robgreen2327]

good informative video

[@featheredice]

Would be nice if thy said the actual dates too

[@khopeshII]

I think you've misunderstood the whole basis for the claim that time stops at the speed of light. Basically it states that a photon itself will experiance no passage of time, however that photon still has to pass through the medium of space/time, meaning that the universe itself will age even as the photon does not.

[@v4l3nt1nn]

brilliant videos....

[@rostislavlu6342]

Ikr

[@JungleJargon]

You forgot that the photon travels through space that is almost no space and the photon passes almost no time.

[@Iamatheist1234]

good one.

[@zairahuab9203]

What are the 4 ways?? Hope someone answer me.

[@alahatzaifat1872]

the calendar, the book, the human arm, and then the length of a human life. It is using these as a comparison of how long it took for the various 'stages' in the 4.6 billion years of earth's history to happen, since 4.6 billion is an incomprehensible or difficult to grasp....

[@PlasticraicGaming]

And for the short period of time us humans have been here, we have done more damage to the planet than all that has come before us.

[@euriel2010]

Can we not cut it in half and count the number of rings?

[@danielawesome3687]

Thermodynamics, its the answer to the Earth's age. It states that energy turns from a usable state to a less usable state, and thats how we age. We are also aware of the magnetic poles of the Earth and its force. Scientists have stated that the force of the earth's magnetic field is decreasing in strength, IN HALF once every 1,400 years. Soooo that means even though the earth's gravity is so weak compared to its first days its still waaaaay strong. so that means the gravity of the Earth even 4,000,000,000 years ago could have sucked the entire young universe, and the sun would be waaaaaaaay bigger that it takes over 1/4 of the modern Milky Way (and so are all the other stars because scientists have found out that the sun shrinks by 250 feet, or 70 meters, per year) AND EVEN 20,000 YEARS AGO THE EARTH COULD HAVE COLLAPSED BECAUSE OF IT'S OWN GRAVITY AND THEREFORE PROVING THAT EVOLUTION AND THE BILLION YEARS ARE FALSE!!! You guys break your own science.... Also it makes the maximum age of the Earth to 10,000 years only, no living thing today would survive in an environment that crushes it's own CREATURES..

[@humbertojimmy]

At 01:18 there's no such thing as "midnight", only in popular language not in scientific language, and since this pretends to be an educational video, why not keep it scientific? ;)

[@DRiungi]

+Jimmy David and the correct term is????

[@danniellearrogante3736]

Seriously, did they mention the four ways? I'm confused,pls. Someone answer

[@abdulrehmanjamil]

Best video

[@milifilou]

Cause of the inches?

[@JungleJargon]

You are measuring expanded time, not the actual time that passes or the actual space light passes through. Time slows to no time at the speed of light and space shrinks to no space at the speed of light.

[@ZoggFromBetelgeuse]

Indeed, it was difficult to follow for non-Americans. With all those US American measures, US American history examples and US American education metaphores, I was afraid we would end up with US American sports analogies... Like "40 microfortnights before the end of the last half-inning, Benjamin Franklin invents the cotton gin". Luckily, the video ended before it came to that.

[@quentinbeck7828]

Did you just predict Fortnite?

[@Deladus]

Which in no way disproves what I said. The Big Bang is still a stretching into its current state. It was smaller, now it is larger. It could have been larger before it was smaller, we don't know. We also don't know if the universe is infinite and space time is stretching into its current form or if it is finite and stretching into something else(or itself). We can't know what is outside of the universe because we are within the universe. The current theory is that the universe has no edges.

[@Ecliptical84]

i think my brain is a single-celled organism...

[@yvonne5652]

happy module day😭✊

[@Tha.Za.inspector]

pakopya nga

[@archstanton3022]

On a scale of stupidity, how many times could this vid wrap itself around the Earth?

[@ProfessorSyndicateFranklai]

+Arch Stanton None and infinite, stupid is an arbiturary value, which is 0(or NaN), Earth Circ/0(or NaN) is, well, what do you get when you divide by 0.

[@jojothedawg4812]

How do they know how many isotopes were there at the beginning if nobody was there to measure it?

[@religionisalie]

One way to determine the age of Earth is to measure the ratio of certain radioactive elements to their more stable forms.

[@randallolson7630]

They aren't counting how many isotopes are in something. They are looking at one unstable isotope, as it converts to its stable counterpart byproduct. Imagine a rock with a ticking clock inside. That clock is an unstable isotope that decays into another element at a steady pace. By measuring the amount of decay product, scientists can estimate the rock's age, like figuring out how long the clock has been ticking.

[@kimbanton4398]

I mean, with fossilized & unfossilized samples that were once alive, they know the amount of C14 in the bodies of every living being, because everybody inhales & exhales the air during their life times at the same rate with the same ratio. The initial isotope ratio can be measured through the atmosphere and thus is known to everybody. With other samples that can not be measured that way there is the Isochron dating method, which can determine the initial ratio of isotopes to non-isotopes in rocks & other older fossils...

[@paulcezarlucas2995]

From March to November is so long

[@educationaltechnology8363]

that's what they call over simplification

[@noideasoriginal4964]

Gravity is a natural phenomenon. Scientific theory is the means by which we most accurately describe a phenomenon. It's the opposite religion.

[@bhawnakumar8764]

How many tree did u cut off to write that many pages?

[@CusterFlux]

They used the word "Isotopes" in the first few seconds of an explanatory video - without realizing most folks haven't a clue what an isotope is: hopefully that's not because the people who made this video where too embarrassed to ask.

[@badwolf6356]

First off please don't become a judge because apparently you would declare any defendant whose alleged crime wasn't witnessed as not guilty. Second many experiments and studies have shown that radioactive dating is accurate and consistent. Five minutes of honest research into trustworthy sources would tell you that.

[@20Stephanus]

Just what do you think "theory" means?

[@religionbuster7180]

So dexter from dexters lab is old now, time goes by so fast

[@AnonHancock]

So you've made an animation for Carl Sagan's book? and you don't source him? LOL

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

The universe is estimated to be a little under 14 billion years old (that is 14 billion years since the big bang/great expansion began), so more like 30%.

[@zairahuab9203]

So what is the 4 ways to understand Earth's age?

[@Obiwancolenobi]

How so?

[@WarriorOfWriters]

Because I'm not selfish, and I actually care whether or not people get the right information. I don't shoe horn anything, the funny thing about evidence based beliefs is that they are entirely compatible with reality by definition.

[@zaddr1881]

I am watching this video on stile of the earth's age and on December 10th it says that dinosaurs evolved in 2 weeks and then got hit by an asteroid, how would dinosaurs evolve in 2 weeks, it has to be in comparison to the earth's age right?

[@alexandergalitevstudentfvh8696]

dinosaurs did not evolve in two weeks, it is likely in proportion to earth's age, as in earths age is represented as 1 year, the evolution of dinosaurs took 2 weeks. idk still sounds kinda wrong but it would be more accurate.

[@BlueCheezy.]

Who watched this for a assignment in 6th grade?

[@RRRooooDDDD]

and earth's age only represent 0.0003% of the age of the universe. i feel small...

[@psetnapskaena7642]

"...and possibly the future as well"???? What do you mean by that? Evolutionary predictions? Time travel?

[@Done50]

I'm visual and I'm rn watching it in science class

[@thalespro9995]

Wish the calendar thing was true cause it would always be New Years eve

[@KennethDCalderon]

We'll have to wait until everything ends to MAYBE get those answers...maybe.

[@alyssaamato4230]

I am so confused

[@LeBreadman]

the first day of high school is where we f*cked up

[@laelpk]

cool!

[@Onlywayis_up]

this video is confusing

[@williamwilson6499]

Space shuttles stopped flying some time ago. And both shuttle disasters had nothing to do with the lack of the metric system. Try again.

[@myneus]

That is fair to say and would be great it United States (America is many countries not just the US) would adopt the metric. I still don't think that is justification for the many "American" racist comments here.

[@Zralf]

on the video : pretty good ways of loooking at it on the comments : why the heck are you still talking about magic sky-man, it's the 21'st century, not the dark ages.

[@Nothing_serious]

all that historical moments just happened in a months?