A “moment” is a highly subjective measure, but it technically originated as a medieval unit of time equal to 90 seconds. This definition came from the monk St. Bede, who divided the solar hour into 40 moments.
- In Science: 13 milliseconds (the minimum time it takes for the human brain to identify a glimpsed image).
- In Psychology: About 150 milliseconds (the standard duration of a single conscious thought).
- In Casual Conversation: 1.5 minutes (the original medieval unit) up to about 3 minutes (the typical duration of a brief pause or task).
Today, the word is generally ambiguous and implies “a very brief period” in most countries. Depending on the context, a moment can range from a fraction of a second to several minutes. However, in México it seems that, “Un momento!” which seldom means in a moment and may extend into 1 hour or maybe even never, as it does not signify a length of time.
Author: G. William Hood
Author, Columnist, Educator, Epistemologist, and Publisher
