Lunchtime

Lunchtime is the time of day when it is time for lunch. It officially begins at around noon and unofficially begins about forty minutes earlier, when someone first says "is it too early for lunch?" It always is, and nobody has ever waited.^[1]

Lunchtime is the only part of the day that is measured backwards. Before it, people count down to it; after it, people count down to the next one.

Duration

A standard lunch hour lasts one hour, but is experienced as eleven minutes. Physicists call this the lunch dilation effect. The opposite effect occurs between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., which is experienced as about a week.^[2]

The longest lunchtime on record took place in 1961 and lasted until the following Thursday, at which point it was reclassified as a holiday.

The lunch break

Lunch is traditionally eaten during a lunch break, a period in which nothing is broken. Early office manuals instructed staff to take a lunch break, and several workers, interpreting this literally, took their lunch apart. The wording has since been clarified.

Many people eat lunch at their desk, which is the same as not having a lunch break, but with crumbs.

Signs that it is lunchtime

• The Sun is at its highest point, looking down at everyone's sandwiches.
• A colleague has started discussing what they might have, in detail, at 10:45.
• A meeting has been scheduled for 12:00, by someone who has already eaten.

See also

• Time – lunchtime is one of its better bits
• Minute – lunch has fewer of these than advertised
• Thursday – when the record lunch finally ended

References

1. Crust, C. (2007). Is It Too Early? A History of Lunch. Sandwich Press. p. 12.
2. Noon, N. & Peckish, P. (1994). "Lunch Dilation and the Long Afternoon". Journal of Midday Physics 12: 1-11.
3. Office Procedures Committee (1932). On Breaking Lunch. Revised 1933.