The Line You Drew Was the Wrong Line

Nothing Was Watching · Page 1 of 4

Name Date
DIRECTIONS: Your history line held all 300,000 years of people. How much longer is the Earth's story?
4,540Earth forms3,700first life2,400oxygen in the air539Cambrian explosion230first dinosaurs66the asteroid↑ nowmillions of years ago · every mark measured, none of it spaced to look nice
#How longIn millions of years
1.All of human history — your old line300,000 years
2.The age of the Earth4,540 million years
  1. Divide the second by the first. How many times longer is the Earth's history than the whole of human history?
    Show your work

Now Draw It Properly

Nothing Was Watching · Page 2 of 4

DIRECTIONS: New scale: all 300,000 years of people = 1 centimeter. How long is the Earth's line?
  1. If 300,000 years is 1 cm, how many centimeters is 4,540 million years? Then turn that into meters.
    Show your work
  2. Is there anywhere in your house that long? Where would you have to go to draw it?
Check: about 151 meters, a football field and a half. All of writing is the last sixth of a millimeter.

Where Things Land on It

Nothing Was Watching · Page 3 of 4

DIRECTIONS: Place each event on the 151 m line, from the left end where the Earth forms: (4,540 − date) ÷ 4,540 × 151 m.
#EventMillions of years agoHow far along the 151 m line (meters)
6.The first life3,700
7.Oxygen appears in the air2,400
8.The Cambrian explosion539
9.The first dinosaurs230
10.The asteroid, and the end of the dinosaurs66
  1. The dinosaurs are the thing most people picture when they hear "long ago". How much of the line is BEFORE the first dinosaur?

What Was Happening in the Empty Part

Nothing Was Watching · Page 4 of 4

DIRECTIONS: Did nothing happen in the long empty part of the line? Read, then answer.
For the first 3,000 million years, everything alive was a single cell. About 2,400 million years ago, living things began putting oxygen into the air, and it poisoned most of what was alive.
  1. Somebody says "the Earth is really old — like, dinosaurs old." Using your line, explain what is wrong with that sentence.
  2. Why do you think almost everything you have been taught about the past sits in the last few centimeters? Give a reason that is about EVIDENCE, not about importance.