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
• a 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