MHB Weird ratio issue (multiple time flows between fictional realms)

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The discussion revolves around establishing time ratios between Earth and two fictional realms where time flows significantly slower. Specifically, 100 years in these higher realms equates to 1 billion Earth years, leading to a ratio of 1 higher realm year equaling 10 million Earth years. Additionally, natives of the higher realms age 1 year for every 10 Earth years, meaning they take 100 higher-realm years to reach the equivalent of 10 human years. Participants in the thread assist with clarifying the math and creating a table to track these time differences. The conversation highlights the complexities of time perception in fictional world-building.
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Hi all,

I'm a writer who is not really great at math so I need some help with establishing time rates between different "realms" in a world-setting I'm building for a story. The gist is this: Earth is there with it's normal 1 year = 1 year timeflow. There are two realms where time runs much more slowly compared to the realm where Earth is. At the rate of 100 years in the "higher realms" = 1 billion years in Earth's realm.

The other issue I'm having is aging in that natives of the higher realms age 1 year for every 10 years a human would age (so it takes them 1000 years in their realm to age from birth to 10 years old for a human).

It would be great if someone could help me write out a table or matrix or something so that I can keep track of what "year" it is in the higher realms relative to what "year" it is on Earth. And no, this isn't for homework or anything -- I graduated from uni back in 2002 with a BA in History and I'm considering getting an MA in Criminal Justice so I *doubt* I'd ever be able to use this to cheat on a test. ;)

Thanks!

-- G.K.

PS -- If you want to check, you can see the story I'm talking about on my website. It's In the Shadow of Yggdrasil.
 
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GKMasterson said:
Hi all,

I'm a writer who is not really great at math so I need some help with establishing time rates between different "realms" in a world-setting I'm building for a story. The gist is this: Earth is there with it's normal 1 year = 1 year timeflow. There are two realms where time runs much more slowly compared to the realm where Earth is. At the rate of 100 years in the "higher realms" = 1 billion years in Earth's realm.

The ratio, then, would be 1 "higher realm" year = 10 million Earth years. So here's a table:

[table="width: 500, class: grid, align: center"]
[tr]
[td]Earth[/td]
[td]Higher Realm[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]0[/td]
[td]0[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]10 Million[/td]
[td]1[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]20 Million[/td]
[td]2[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]30 Million[/td]
[td]3[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]40 Million[/td]
[td]4[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
The other issue I'm having is aging in that natives of the higher realms age 1 year for every 10 years a human would age (so it takes them 1000 years in their realm to age from birth to 10 years old for a human).

This math isn't quite right. First of all, do you mean that natives of the higher realms age 1 higher-realm year for every 10 Earth years a human would age? In that case, I think you mean that it would take natives of the higher realm 100 higher-realm years to reach the same "age" as a human would reach in 10 Earth years. Does that sound right? (The basic equation here is distance = rate x time, but all three of these variables sort of look like times! It's rather confusing in my head, at least.)

It would be great if someone could help me write out a table or matrix or something so that I can keep track of what "year" it is in the higher realms relative to what "year" it is on Earth. And no, this isn't for homework or anything -- I graduated from uni back in 2002 with a BA in History and I'm considering getting an MA in Criminal Justice so I *doubt* I'd ever be able to use this to cheat on a test. ;)

Thanks!

-- G.K.

PS -- If you want to check, you can see the story I'm talking about on my website. It's In the Shadow of Yggdrasil.

I like the title of your work! Nice Norse mythology going on there. By the way, does your username have anything to do with G. K. Chesterton?
 
Thanks for the table. :) Now I get the fun of populating it so that it matches known cosmological history and I can correlate my fictional history of "what's going on in Asgard and Jotunheim, yo" to it. I've been trying to do that for a week now and couldn't figure out how to get it to work out right because I'm terrible at math. :)

Ackbach said:
This math isn't quite right. First of all, do you mean that natives of the higher realms age 1 higher-realm year for every 10 Earth years a human would age? In that case, I think you mean that it would take natives of the higher realm 100 higher-realm years to reach the same "age" as a human would reach in 10 Earth years. Does that sound right? (The basic equation here is distance = rate x time, but all three of these variables sort of look like times! It's rather confusing in my head, at least.)

Yeah -- that's the general gist of it. It is a weird situation but it's not something they notice because they're used to it. Asgardians/Jotuns don't have kids very often and their realms don't have too many similarities to the other realms so this is a non-issue. They don't have to deal with scarcity, disease, etc.

Ackbach said:
I like the title of your work! Nice Norse mythology going on there. By the way, does your username have anything to do with G. K. Chesterton?

Thanks and sort of. The G.K. bit was a happy coincidence and when I was picking my pen-name, I wanted something that sounded a bit like Chesterton but started with "M" so that my books would be near G.R.R.M.'s and Robert Jordan's.

Thanks!

-- G.K.
 
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