Question

If you compress geologic time into a single year, how much time has elapsed since Columbus arrived in the New World?

Answer 1

Answer: 3.6 seconds

Explanation: Geologic time is a way of measuring time based on events in the history of the Earth. If we compress this into one year, a single geologic year equals 4.6 billion years because the planet  was formed 4.6 billion years ago.  

Columbus arrived in the New World in August 1492, 528 years ago.

If 4.6 billion years = 1 year in geologic time,

528 years = 528 X  $\frac{1X365daysX24hoursX60minutesX60seconds}{4600000000}$

=3.6 seconds

(I broke the year down into seconds by breaking it down into days, then hours, minutes and seconds because the value is very small)

So, if we compress geologic time into a single year, only 3.6 seconds have elapsed since Columbus arrived in the New World