# how long is a moment? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 30, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259 "2005-09-30T21:37:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![owenburnett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/67e7ee/32.png) [@owenburnett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owenburnett)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/1 "2005-09-30T21:37:31Z")
several years ago i was playing trivial pursuit and it asked me this question: how long is a moment? it confused me because i always thought there isn’t an actual time value to a moment. however, the answer was “a minute and a half.” i remember this distinctly because i meant to look it up and find out how they came up with that answer. i don’t have the game anymore (and haven’t found the card with that question again). i’m pretty sure the version was a family edition with the yellow green (adult) and yellow box (kids) inside. the edition is before genus IV came out (some time in the late 90s). anyone have a clue as to why the answer to the question of how long is a moment is a minute and a half? the closest reason i can think of is the etymology of moment, but haven’t found a dictionary or encyclopedia that says so. thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/2 "2005-09-30T21:41:14Z")
> [@owenburnett](#): > > anyone have a clue as to why the answer to the question of how long is a moment is a minute and a half? Sure. It’s because the compilers of Trivial Pursuit sometimes made stuff up. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/3 "2005-09-30T21:46:21Z")
> [@owenburnett](#): > > anyone have a clue as to why the answer to the question of how long is a moment is a minute and a half? Sure. It’s because the compilers of Trivial Pursuit sometimes made stuff up. ---
**Author:** ![owenburnett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/67e7ee/32.png) [@owenburnett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owenburnett)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/4 "2005-09-30T22:00:35Z")
> [@Gary T](#): > > Sure. It’s because the compilers of Trivial Pursuit sometimes made stuff up. :smack: you mean i’ve been racking my brain all these years because trivial pursuit decided to play a trick on me? damn them!!! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/5 "2005-09-30T22:16:10Z")
Rule of thumb. All Trivial Pursuit answers are crap. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/6 "2005-09-30T22:20:40Z")
I won’t dispute Trivial Pursuit answers are unreliable, but some answers are deliberate copyright traps. Just like most maps will have a few imaginary towns/streets. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/7 "2005-09-30T23:21:32Z")
I think it’s equal to ten shakes of a lamb’s tail. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/8 "2005-09-30T23:31:25Z")
Since a moment is perceptually ambiguous, perhaps you could say it is the length of a [saccade](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccade) (20-800 milliseconds) Consider this from Zeki (2003) > [@The disunity of consciousness](#): > > In particular, it has been shown that colour is perceived before motion by ,80 ms. Nor is the perceptual asynchrony limited to colour and motion, because it has also been shown that locations are perceived before colours, which are perceived before orientations. At each saccade you receive more information with which to integrate and become phenomenally aware of. A new “moment” =) ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/9 "2005-10-01T05:59:24Z")
How long is a piece of string? ---
**Author:** ![OliverTwistofLime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b487fb/32.png) [@OliverTwistofLime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OliverTwistofLime)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/10 "2005-10-01T07:51:52Z")
Years ago I was taught that a moment is the briefest interval of time…that nothing is more brief. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/11 "2005-10-01T08:39:14Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I won’t dispute Trivial Pursuit answers are unreliable, but some answers are deliberate copyright traps. Just like most maps will have a few imaginary towns/streets. Tempting as this is as an answer, that’s not it. In mediaeval reckoning, each hour was divided into four “points”, and each of those into ten “moments” – ie 1.5 minutes. The OED has it as sense 2 in its entry for “moment”. Sense 1 agrees with **OliverTwistofLime’s** definition. So it’s a real definition, but an obsolete one from an archaic system of time measurement. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/12 "2005-10-01T17:07:41Z")
It’s … … . … . . … . … . . . . . . . that long. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/13 "2005-10-01T19:01:30Z")
It’s defined as the exact length of time it takes for 1 man to die, and 1[sup]1[/sup]/[sub]16[/sub] to be born. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-a-moment/324259/14 "2005-10-01T21:24:46Z")
> [@OliverTwistofLime](#): > > Years ago I was taught that a moment is the briefest interval of time…that nothing is more brief. A friend of mine here in Panama calls the shortest possible interval of time the _panasecond_, which is the time it takes between a traffic light turning green and the person behind you starting to honk his horn. Some postulate that the panasecond is actually negative, since the honking may start even before the light turns green. Time reversal in action!