Perception of time passing

It is strange how much human perceptions of the rate at which time passes can vary so much both for an individual and between individuals.

I was told when I was twenty-one by an individual who was then 28 that from this point my perception of the passage of time would get faster and faster.

In my case this was wrong but I have conversations about this with dozens if not hundreds of friends and almost everyone else agreed that her comment matched their own experience.

Apparently it is a common part of the aging process for the "body clock" to change speed and with it our perception of the rate at which time passes. Maybe mine just got stuck.

Albert Einstein once illustrated relativity with the following comment about perceived passage of time:

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.”

Yesterday evening I had to check how much time had passed since an event which had in fact taken place on 4th May - the Monday before the election. It was actually eight days but seemed like a lifetime. But a lot had happened in those eight days!

Comments

Jim said…
I get it all the time, A day at work lasts 5 times longer than a day off. An hour going to the supermarket with the mrs lasts for 6 days and an hour doing something awesome lasts 6 minutes.

Personally It seems like yesterday I was in the RAF (I left in 2005), yet it seems like an eternity ago I worked for Océ (I left in 2008)
5:17 pm
Jim said…
And the worst one of all of course, those 90 seconds it takes for the wahing machine door to unlock, when it dawns on you that you have just set it off with a twenty pound note still in your jeans pocket. Man thats the longest 90 seconds of your life.
5:21 pm
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