[bodhi]

    irb(main):033:0> 20.years
    => 20 years               # ??????
    irb(main):030:0> 20.years.to_i
    => 631152000              # number of seconds in 20 years
    irb(main):026:0> 20.years.from_now
    => Sun Feb 10 10:14:11 +1100 2030 # AEDT
    irb(main):027:0> 20.years.from_now.utc
    => Sat Feb 09 23:14:14 UTC 2030   # UTC/GMT

Ruby Time instances have a timezone, calling Time#utc returns the instance time converted from localtime -- or whatever timezone it is -- to UTC or Greenwich Mean Time. You are correct in that it shouldn't matter which one you use in this situation though.

[psadauskas]

Your first one, commented with ??????, is an instance of a Duration object. It implements the #ago and #from_now methods, so that Integer objects aren't cluttered with methods that mean nothing to it.

http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveSupport/Duration.ht...