An atom of time or "a-tom" ("indivisible" in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
), refers to the smallest possible unit of time.
History
One of the earliest occurrences of the word "atom" to mean the smallest possible unit of measuring time is found in the Greek text of the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
in Paul's . The text compares the length of time of the “atom” to the time needed for "the twinkling of an eye." The text reads: "" – the word "atom" is usually translated "a moment" — "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye". With that meaning, it was later referred to in
Medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
philosophical writings as the smallest possible division of time. The earliest known occurrence in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
is in
Byrhtferth
Byrhtferth ( ang, Byrhtferð; ) was a priest and monk who lived at Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire) in England. He had a deep impact on the intellectual life of later Anglo-Saxon England and wrote many computistic, ha ...
's ''Enchiridion'' (a science text) of 1010–1012, where it was defined as 1/564 of a ''
momentum
In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass an ...
'' (1½ minutes),
[ Draft Revision. (contains relevant citations from Byrhtferth's ''Enchiridion'')] and thus equal to almost 160 milliseconds. It was used in the ''
computus
As a moveable feast, the date of Easter is determined in each year through a calculation known as (). Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon on or after 21 March (a fixed approxi ...
'', the calculation used to determine the calendar date of
Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
.
See also
*
Planck time
References
Units of time
Philosophy of time
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