Try this with a grown-up
The toilet-roll timeline
How long ago did the dinosaurs live? Unroll a roll of toilet paper and see, as the professor explains in Did T. rex Meet Diplodocus?
You will need
- A roll of toilet paper
- A pen
- A long hallway, or the garden on a dry day
What to do
- Every sheet is one million years. Write 'Today' on the first sheet.
- Unroll it along the floor and count 66 sheets. Write 'T. rex' on that one.
- Keep going to sheet 150. Write 'Diplodocus' there.
- Now look back at the first sheet. People like us fit on less than half of sheet number one!
Why does it work?
T. rex lived 66 million years ago and Diplodocus about 150 million years ago, so they lived 84 million years apart. That means T. rex lived closer in time to you than to Diplodocus. They never met.
It’s in Episode 3, Did T. rex Meet Diplodocus?
Watch the episode