because the earth's rotation is gradually slowing down, a day back when dinosaurs were still alive was just 23 hours long.

because the core of the sun is denser than its surface, the resulting gravitational potential warps time. as a result, the sun's core is 39,000 years younger than the surface.

the same is true of earth, but on a smaller scale: the core is about 2.5 years younger than the crust.

dinosaurs were around for 697 times longer than humans are likely to be at the time that we become extinct.

cleopatra was born 2,500 years after the pyramids were built, but just 2,000 years before the first moon landing.

due to the gravity well caused by earth's mass, time in our planet's core is roughly 2.5 years behind the surface.

you will spend an average of 5 years of your life waiting in line.

5 years.

why?

because of the universe's rate of expansion, eventually even the closest stars will be so far away that their light will no longer reach us. that's right: as time goes on, one by one, the stars will appear to go out.

performing a task that you have never done before slows down your perception of time.

due to time dilation, astronauts on the international space station age more slowly than those of us on earth.

the closer you are to a major gravity well, like a planet, the slower your relative time proceeds. the faster you move, the quicker your relative time proceeds. both effects are only visible to observers - to you, time seems to proceed just as it always has.

according to quantum mechanics, events in the future affect events in the past. that's because the forward flow of time is an illusion.

you spend 5 years of your life or more standing in line.

the passage of time is completely subjective. when you move your eyes rapidly to look at a clock, the second hand appears to freeze. this is an illusion - your brain is just trying to catch up.

(string theory suggests that time itself is an illusion.)

one earth day is 24 hours, right? wrong. the actual amount of time that it takes the earth to rotate is 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1 seconds.

when you look at a clock and the second hand seems to freeze, what actually happens is that your perception of time stretches slightly backwards, and your brain generates a false memory. this phenomenom is called chronostasis.