Since history is "time travel" how do we measure time?

How long does it take to run 100 metres; 1500 metres; a marathon?
For which of these do you use seconds; minutes and seconds; hours, minutes and seconds? In each case, you are recording time.

Complete the following table

TIMEHOW MEASURED
100 metre - race__________________________
1500 metre - race__________________________
Marathon race__________________________
Time in the morning__________________________
Time in the afternoon__________________________
Time 24 hours ago__________________________
Time several days ago__________________________
Time over seven days ago__________________________
Time over thirty days ago__________________________
Time over 365 days ago__________________________
Time over 3,650 days ago__________________________
Time over a hundred years ago__________________________
Time over several hundred years ago__________________________
Time before Christ's birth__________________________
Time after Christ's birth__________________________


Use terms from the following list to help you complete the form.

A month; a day; seconds; decade; minutes; hours; AD; BC; centuries; ages; a.m.; p.m.; a year; a week; a past week.

The terms in the list helped us to put facts from the past in the right order.

Take a fact that almost everyone knows ... The day they were born.

For example Javon Pinder was born at 3.27 am on 14 august 1986.

You can show which year you were born on a time line.

Draw a line and mark on it one centimetre for each year of your life.



Mark on the line when you were born, when you first went to school, and any eight other important events that happened in your life.

You can use the same kind of line to show the major events in world history over thousands of years.

When we talk about a fact in the past, we often say it happened in a particular century ---- for example, the eighteenth.

The eighteenth century is the years between 1700 AD and 1799 AD. The years between 1 AD and 99 AD are the first century.

What do we mean when we say that Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55BC, or that Viataro Johnson was born in 1984 AD?

BC means Before Christ, AD (short for the Latin Anno Domini) means After Our Lord. Other people use different points in the past from which they date events. --- for example, the Muslims. Year 1 in the Muslim Calendar is 622 AD, when their religion began.

What is the present year in the Muslim Calendar?






  1. If someone tried to sell you a Roman coin with the date 45 BC on it, what would you say to them?
  2. Make out a time line for the past 3000 years. (1cm = 100 years). Mark on it some of the main events in history. Include the Egyptians; Greeks; Romans; Dark Ages; Middle Ages; the birth of Christ; the Crusades; the printing of the first book; the first powered flight by man; the First World War; the Second World War; landing of the first man on the moon. Also add at least five other discoveries or inventions.
  3. In which centuries would you place the following dates? 400BC; 67AD; 1066AD; 40BC; 1789AD; 1985AD; 2010AD; 701BC; 1146BC; 1300AD.

Chronology and Scale

Scale 1cm = 5 years or 1" = 10 years
Using the scale above plot, an accurate time line from the information below. Use your own made - up names. Give the time line a suitable title of 4-6 words.
  1. Born in 1835.
  2. Died in 1940.
  3. Started Sunday School at the age of 5.
  4. Started working at the age of 15.
  5. Accident at work in 1855.
  6. Got married 3 years after the accident.
  7. First child, a girl, born six years after the accident.
  8. Second child, a boy, born 2 years after the first child.
  9. Re married in 1880 to a younger partner.
  10. Went on a cruise around the world at age 65.
  11. Retired from work in 1905.
  12. Second wife died in childbirth in 1922.
  13. Enlisted in the army to fight in World War One in 1916.
  14. Came back from the War wounded in 1919.
  15. In 1926 saw the first ever movie with sound.