Orders of magnitude (time)

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An order of magnitude of time is usually a decimal prefix or decimal order-of-magnitude quantity together with a base unit of time, like a microsecond or a million years. In some cases, the order of magnitude may be implied (usually 1), like a "second" or "year." In other cases, the quantity name implies the base unit, like "century." In most cases, the base unit is seconds or years. Prefixes are not usually used with a base unit of years. Therefore, it is said "a million years" instead of "a megayear." Clock time and calendar time have duodecimal or sexagesimal orders of magnitude rather than decimal, e.g., a year is 12 months, and a minute is 60 seconds. The smallest measurable increment of time is Planck time –the time light takes to traverse the Planck distance, many decimal orders of magnitude smaller than a second. However, the Planck time is not a quantum of time, as both general relativity and quantum mechanics treat time as continuous. The largest realized amount of time, based...

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