Facts that might mess with your sense of time

Hi, this is Alex. I’m part of the design team, and I really like to learn about human history. Today, I’ll share some interesting, maybe even fun, facts that might make you question your sense of time. Prepare to be stunned!

Some time ago, I watched a video about “facts that will mess with your sense of time”. I love these kinds of thought experiments as a fun way to learn about historic events. And the most surprising fact, at least to me, was right at the beginning:

In my mind, the Aztecs, Inka, and Maya were super old civilizations dating back thousands of years. To be fair, the beginnings of the Maya do date back to 2000 B.C., but they were around until the end of the 17th century. On top of that, Oxford University, like many other universities, is very old. Nevertheless, it’s still crazy to me that these civilizations existed so far into the 16th and 17th centuries. That means, theoretically, they could have gone to Oxford University if it weren’t for the cultural and geographical separation of the two worlds.

Also, an interesting side note: modern calculus (the mathematical study of continuous change) was only developed in the 17th century. Before that, they would only be able to teach geometry and algebra at Oxford, both of which had been developed way earlier.

More fascinating facts

This in itself was hopefully already something new to you — it was to me! 😉 But I decided to collect a few more examples of things that, surprisingly, happened around the same time. Here are some of my favorite overlaps in (more recent) human history:

For example, the first bicycle was invented five years after the steam locomotive. In fact, the first pedal-driven bike only came along another 22 years later. (Wondering what a bike without pedals looked like? See for yourself.) While humans had many different means of transportation, for some reason, I always assumed that a simple bike had been invented long before a steam-powered train. And the modern car only hit the roads 47 years after the pedal bike.

The Simpsons, a famous American animated TV show, first aired two years before the Soviet Union collapsed. That goes to show how old the Simpsons are, but somehow still doesn’t fit in my head that these two events overlap. The same TV show that’s still being produced today, in a world that seems so different.

Man landed on the Moon eight years before the last official guillotine execution in France. That means humans were already walking on the Moon, while on Earth, some countries still used medieval methods for judicial enforcement.

And finally, the Samurai, Japan’s famous elite warriors, existed way longer than I expected. They even outlived Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. What may be even harder to believe, the first commercial telefax service between Paris and Lyon was introduced in 1865. So theoretically, Lincoln almost could’ve received a fax from the Samurai before his assassination (if fax machines were more widespread at the time).

For me, as a German, next time a federal office suggests that I send them a fax, I will remember it’s a technology that dates back to the era of the Samurai, which at least makes it feel a little cooler. 😄

There are probably many more weird and interesting historical overlaps out there. These were the ones that stuck out the most to me. I’d be interested if you heard about any of these facts before, or what other unexpected overlaps you know about. And while you think about the history, you can look forward to the next Weekly Chart from our developer, Toni.