Human timescales

This is a table of time periods relevant to human beings.

0.1 to 0.2 s:
*0.1 reaction time, blinking
*0.15 seconds -- recommended maximum time delay for telephone service

0.2 to 1 s
*0.2 to 0.67 seconds -- a beat of modern dance music
* average reading or talking speed 120 words/min is 0.5 s/word
* 1/70 to 1/120 min = 0.5 to 1 s - heart rate period, frequency 2 to 1 Hertz
* Sensory memory up to 1 s.

1-10 s:
* breathing period
* reading/talking speed, 1-5 s/sentence
* Short term memory up to 10 to 15 s

10-100 s
* 60 seconds = one minute

1,000 s:
* 3600 seconds = one hour, one lesson

10,000 s:
* 28,600 seconds = 8 hours -- one workday in most Western countries
* 86,400 seconds = one day = 24 hours, sleep, awake

100,000 s:
* 604,800 seconds = week = 7 days (with one weekend)

1,000,000 s:
* 30 days length of the month, Biorhythm

10,000,000 s, 116 days to 3.2 years:
* 9 month human gestation
* 31,560,000 seconds = year

100,000,000 s, 3.2 to 32 years:
* a decade
* an human generation

1,000,000,000 s:
* 2,400,000,000 seconds = 75 years -- average life span in the first world
* 3,156,000,000 seconds = century

See also

* human scale
* orders of magnitude (time)
* rhythm
* tempo