Talk:Cosmological decade

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[edit] Lasts vs. Begins at

I am confused about something. I assume "CÐ 100" and the "100th cosmological decade" are equivalent. I also assume that each decade is discrete, that is, the 99th decade ends when the 100th decade begins. Currently, the articles says that the 100th decade both 1) lasts 10¹⁰⁰ seconds, and 2) lasts from 10¹⁰⁰ to 10¹⁰¹ seconds after the Big Bang. If the 100th cosmological decade begins at 10¹⁰⁰ and ends at 10¹⁰¹, then to be precise, it lasts 9*10¹⁰⁰ seconds. Similarly, using the log years per decade convention, the 100th cosmological decade begins at 10¹⁰⁰ and lasts for 9*10¹⁰⁰ years. Unless anyone knows better, I'll try to fix this soon.

On a related note, I've heard it described that "each cosmological decade is ten times the length of all the previous time put together" (paraphrased from The Universe, episode 18). This is also incorrect, as it inflates the length of each decade by 11%. (Or worse if you compound the error, which is kind of hard since you have to go back an infinite number of decades to start compounding). Each cosmological decade is only ten times the length of the previous decade. --Spiffy sperry (talk) 04:38, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Of course all these statements make sense if you drop your requirement that these "decades" don't overlap. This is not a notation used by working cosmologists, by the way, so possibly the precise meaning is still up for grabs. That funny-looking symbol certainly needs a reference. PaddyLeahy (talk) 18:11, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Conversion formula

To convert the cosmological decade as expressed in log years per decade, the article says "simply divide by seconds per year; in logarithmic terms, simply subtract 7.3230203 from the values listed above." I know that the length of the year hasn't remained constant throughout history, but I note that this value for seconds per year is precisely 2/3 of what it is today. In the sidereal year, there are 31,558,153 seconds, so log(31,558,153) = 7.4991116 (a number also used in the article), but log(31,558,153*2/3) = 7.3230203. What's the significance of using the smaller number for the conversion? --Spiffy sperry (talk) 04:19, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

This edit shows the original entry, where both instances based on seconds per year use 2/3 of the actual value. Then in this edit, the first instance is corrected, but the second isn't. I've removed the first instance (it was in the context of 365.2564 days since the Big Bang, which isn't meaningful). I'll correct the second. --Spiffy sperry (talk) 13:17, 31 May 2008 (UTC)