---
id: l29u
title: Time_and_computers
tags: []
created: Sunday, April 28, 2024
---

# Time_and_computers

## Epochs and Unix Time

An epoch is a period of time identified by a starting point.

The standard epoch for measuring against is known colloqially as "Unix Time":
midnight on 1st January 1970. Unix time is the number of seconds that have
elapsed since this point. This is the standard for Windows and most unix
systems.

For example midnight on 2nd January 1970 would be 86400 seconds since the epoch.
The deduction is as follows:

```
60 * 60 * 24 = 86400
```

We are multiplpying the number of seconds in a minute by the number of minutes
in an hour by the number of hours in a day.