Got a minute? If you’re like most Americans, hooked to each other by the tentacles of technology and bending under the weight of to-do lists, there just doesn’t seem to be enough minutes in the day.
But consider: In 60 seconds, champion cyclist Lance Armstrong pedals about 100 revolutions. Some woodpeckers hammer their beaks against a tree 100 times. A mosquito flaps its wings 36,000 times. You blink an average 12-15 times.
“I’ve often felt that things are blurred, and we don’t remember what went on or appreciate what just happened,” says Michael Rosen, author of “The 60-Second Encyclopedia: The Most Amazing Things Ever Done in a Single Minute!” (Workman, $11.95), the source of the above facts. “We decide to multitask instead of experience.”
Narrowing his focus on this one unit of time, Rosen found that a lot can happen in a minute. His book, which comes with a minute sandglass, is packed with an array of natural, historical, biological and sociological occurrences that take place in 60 seconds.
For example, every minute, 6,000 lightning bolts light up the skies, and 15,838 coins are produced by the U.S. Mint.
“It’s really looking closely at (a grain of time) that we hadn’t realized was really complicated,” Rosen says.
He ends his book on a reflective note: “A minute can make a world of difference.” After all, he notes in the book, the late pianist Liberace is still in the record books more than 18 years after his death for playing the most notes – 3,000 – in a minute.
