The Himalayan Mountains have been growing slowly for about 50 million years. Using the same method, find out how many human lifetimes have passed since the Himalayan Mountains began to grow.

Question

Complete the sentence to explain what you are trying to find out.

"I need to find out how many times
[ Select ]
divides into
[ Select ]
."

Answer 1

To determine how many human lifetimes have passed since the Himalayan Mountains began to grow, we can break it down into the following parts.

Assuming an average human lifetime is about 75 years, we would calculate how many lifetimes fit into the 50 million years.

To complete your sentence:

"I need to find out how many times 75 years divides into 50 million years."

Now, performing the calculation:

1. Convert 50 million years into years: \( 50,000,000 \) years

2. Divide that by the average human lifetime: \[ \frac{50,000,000 \text{ years}}{75 \text{ years per lifetime}} = \frac{50,000,000}{75} \approx 666,666.67 \]

Thus, approximately 666,667 human lifetimes have passed since the Himalayan Mountains began to grow.