Gigasecond

For past times above one gigasecond, see Timeline of world history and Timeline of human prehistory. For future times above one gigasecond, see Timeline of the future. For a list half-lives above one gigasecond, see List of isotopes by half-life.

A gigasecond (symbol: Gs) is 1 billion seconds, or roughly 31.7 years. This table lists times of between 1 and 1000 gigaseconds, or between 31.7 and 31,700 years. This timescale encompasses the whole of human history since the time of Cro-Magnon man.

1–10 gigaseconds

• 35 years (1.10 × 10⁹ s) – Constitutionally-mandated minimum age for President of the United States
• 36 years (1.14 × 10⁹ s) – recorded maximum lifespan of a cat
• 50.5 years (1.59 × 10⁹ s) – average age of human menopause
• 52 years – length of one calendar round in the Mesoamerican calendar
• 60 years – length of one full cycle (Celestial stem/Terrestrial branch) in the Chinese calendar
• 63 years, 8 months – Reign of Queen Victoria
• 64 years – Reign of the Pharaoh Rameses II
• 65 years (2.05 × 10⁹ s) – a common age for retirement of workers
• 68.056118 years (2147643648 seconds) – length of the 32-bit Unix epoch, which ends on Jan 19, 2038.
• 72 years, 3 months, 18 days (2.28 × 10⁹ s) – reign of Louis XIV
• 74 years – duration of Communist rule in Russia
• 75 years (2.37 × 10⁹ s) – average life span of humans in the First World
• 78 years – estimated maximum lifespan of an elephant
• 84.3 years – one orbit of Uranus
• 100 years (3.156 × 10⁹ s) – one century. Approximate duration of the Inca Empire
• 116 years – duration of the Hundred Years War
• 122 years and 164 days (3.86 × 10⁹ s) – longest recorded lifespan of any known human (Jeanne Calment)
• 165 years – one orbit of Neptune
• 190 years – credited age of the oldest known tortoise, oldest land animal
• 247.7 years – one orbit of Pluto
• 283.2 years – one orbit of Haumea
• 288 years – one orbit of Quaoar
• 302 years – duration of Spanish colonial rule in Mexico
• 304 years – duration of the Romanov dynasty in Russia
• 309 years – one orbit of Makemake

10–100 gigaseconds

• 330 years – duration of the Mughal Empire in India
• 331 years – duration of the Plantagenet dynasty in England
• 360 years – one divine year in Hindu mythology
• 367 years – length of the Roman occupation of Britain
• 394.256 years (144,000 days) – one baktun in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar
• 403 years – duration of the Hohenzollern monarchy in Brandenburg, Prussia, and Germany
• 460 years – duration of tsarist rule in Russia
• 507 years – duration of the Roman Empire
• 519 years – approximate duration of the Kingdom of France (length of time between the centralisation of the French state under King Louis IX and the end of the Monarchy in the French Revolution)
• 557 years – revolution of Eris
• 624 years – duration of the Ottoman Empire
• 790 years – approximate duration of Zhou Dynasty (c. 1046 – 256 BC), the longest dynasty in Chinese history
• 838 years – duration of the Ethiopian Empire
• 844 years – duration of the Holy Roman Empire
• 864 years – duration of the Kingdom of Scotland
• 969 years – alleged age of Methuselah at death
• 1000 years – one millennium = 3.16×10¹⁰ seconds
• 1053 years – duration of the Byzantine Empire
• 1292 years – collective duration of the various Islamic Caliphates
• 1460 years – length of the Sothic cycle; the time it took the ancient Egyptian calendar to realign with the heliacal rising of Sirius
• 2122 years – duration of the Chinese Empire
• 2628 years – duration of monarchical rule in Iran
• 3100 years – duration of the rule of the Pharaohs in Ancient Egypt

100–1000 gigaseconds

• 5125.36 years (1,872,000 days) – one piktun in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar
• 12,059 years – one orbit of Sedna
• 15,000 years – one Platonic year; the time it takes the seven classical planets to realign to a specific configuration
• 25,765 years – one Great Year, a completion of the cycle of the precession of the equinoxes

See also

• Megasecond
• Terasecond

External links

• A gigasecond calculator