A student from one of the classes I substituted for recently asked me “how long is half an hour?” Having patience, I quickly answered that it was 30 minutes. I walked away from the encounter thinking I had answered the student’s question and did a good job. It was only then that I realized that I a lot more to consider.
I started to wonder is thirty minutes was a long time. Consider, if you will, the following observations:
- 30 minutes of work is way longer than 30 minutes of fun
- 30 minutes to get ready for work goes like a flash, but 30 minutes waiting for the bus just crawls by
- 30 minutes of sleep is woefully inadequate but a thirty-minute nap is pretty awesome
- a 30 minute lunch is only slightly unacceptable, whereas a 30 minute dinner is ludicrous
- a 30 minute TV show is only about 22 minutes
- 30 minutes of cooking time leaves a lot of my food horribly undercooked
So now….did I really help the student at all?
Because it is just a measurement, 30 minutes is determined by the suitable clock just as a foot by a measuring stick. But isn’t a question in philosophy about whether time exists? And an instantiation of the problem you close your eyes, plug your ears, over your nostrils, waiting for time to pass. I think you ought to seek that student out and give a lecture on how weird yet problematic her question is.
Ooh, and a thirty minute bike ride is a tease!
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about as long as a piece of string?
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I only am saying this because no one in 2020 has said anything on here!
Thank you. This is still my most popular (most read or most found) post.
2021
we made it
Indeed we did.