longsince.day

How long ago?

Rudolf Virchow German doctor, anthropologist, public health activist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist

Arrows nudge. Page Up and Page Down move in jumps. Home and End go to either end.

Pablo Picasso Spanish painter and sculptor

Drag the tag first, if you have not already.

How to read this

Two dates are already on the line. A third is on the tag. Drag it to where you think it goes, then drop it.

The true date appears where it belongs, and a band opens between the two: its width is how far out you were. Every mark says what its date measures, because they are not all alike: a person is a lifespan, a mission is a launch, a town is when it was settled.

Once enough people have played, the crowd’s marker joins them, showing where most people put it. Those are people who chose to play a game about time, so read it as what history enthusiasts think rather than as what everyone thinks.

Most people place things too recently. The further back something is, the more it collapses toward everything else back there. It is called the telescoping effect, and it is what this is about.

More on the telescoping effect