• Question: At what time did the world begin?

    Asked by howbenek1 to Adam, Catherine, Karen, Leila, Nazim on 15 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Adam Stevens

      Adam Stevens answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      Half past two in the afternoon.

    • Photo: Karen Masters

      Karen Masters answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      The Earth of of a bunch of rock and ices which were in a disc around the baby Sun about 5 billion years ago.

    • Photo: Nazim Bharmal

      Nazim Bharmal answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      A few hundred years ago, somebody tried to work out the exact time and decided it was about 6000 years ago at 10 o’clock in the morning! We can’t be that precise, but our best guess now is about 4 billion years ago. Given that the sun is 4.5 billion years old, the Earth is actually quite old compared to the solar system.

    • Photo: Leila Battison

      Leila Battison answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      When trying to work out the age of the Earth, a bishop in the 17th century tried to trace back all the names in the bible, and who was related to who – until he got right back to Adam and Eve. He came up with a really precise date for the beginning of the world: on Sunday 23rd October 4004BC.

      While very precise, we of course know now that he was completely wrong! All the rocks and fossils on Earth tell us that it is 4.5 billion years old. When something is that old, it’s hard to pin down a specific time!

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