Is time a constant or does it really 'fly'?

I am sure we all have had the feeling that 'time flys' or that time just seems to drag on for ever. When you say to someone 'man this week went by so fast' they agree.
What causes this feeling of time going by fast or slow? Do you think it is acctually possible for EVERYTHING to speed up or slow down in sync?
Kind of like a VCR...the image moves in sync with the counter. In FF the counter shows the amount of time passed is more then the length it took to pass. Or in slow motion the seconds take longer, but the images move slower, taking longer.
Take notice if a large amount of people you encounter think the past day, or week or whatever goes by slow or fast. This might be something I just notice, when I tell people my idea they think I am crazy. Is it just a coincidence with me, or does it happen with others.

Does everyone understand this?

I never understood time, until I ditched all the instruments that told me what time it was.

The rate of time can be different for different observers according to relativity, but you're not going to notice it unless you are in a very extreme situation. If you go near the speed of light your rate of time is lower than that of your surroundings.

Originally posted by amantine
The rate of time can be different for different observers according to relativity, but you're not going to notice it unless you are in a very extreme situation. If you go near the speed of light your rate of time is lower than that of your surroundings.

i think perception of time is the issue here. so what changes in an extreme situation(ie. car accident for fast extreme, boring family vacation slide show for slow extreme)? adrenaline? brainwaves, maybe? if normally we see at 30 fps, do we start seeing more frames per second in extreme situations, perhaps? our perception of time doesn't change physical time.
there's another thread about this somewhere, i think.


[edit on 10-6-2004 by billybob]

Yes according to special relativity, time varies with your velocity. In General relativity time varies according to the strenght of teh gravitational field. The closer you are to earth the slower time will flow, it is not noticable to us, but GPS satellites have to take GR into account. As far as time "flying" it is just really a term that has no significance except in describing the situation, its no big deal if u ask me.

Also... here's something to think about with the perspective of time. When you fall asleep it seems as if though you fell asleep and 1 second later you're awake. Now let's make a scenario in which you fall asleep with a friend playing video games next to you. The person playing video games will "feel" the time you sleep, but in the end, both of you will have been living for that alotted amount of time. It's odd...

Situations I am talking about are long extended periods of time. No real extreme situations. Just living life. When the past week felt like a month or the past month felt like a week.

Is time a constant or does it really 'fly'?


It's an illusion.

Not being any kind of expert on anything I would still say time really does fly. I got a mate, and when im with her I look at the clock and what seems 10 mins later is 3 hours later. I suppose you could just call her good company. It must have something to do with mental perception. Same goes when you experience everything in slow motion, which is another common time phenomenon

cultureshock quote, "I never understood time, until I ditched all the instruments that told me what time it was."

Way to go. I done the same with age, I don�t except my birthday, as far as im concerned I just exist.

Originally posted by alienaddicted
Is time a constant or does it really 'fly'?


It's an illusion.

Indeed. I also believe that time is an illusion. Just don't try to use it as an excuse for being late...

Time isn't real. Man made it up.

if normally we see at 30 fps, do we start seeing more frames per second in extreme situations, perhaps? our perception of time doesn't change physical time.

Actually the 30 fps refers to the frame rate of standard NTSC Video. Actually the true number is 29.97 frames per second with two fields per frame which are interlaced. Film rate is actually 24 FPS... most cartoons use 16 FPS.
Eyes don't see frames, they percieve a constant flow of input.

i dont think time changes

but it is weird how evry 1 at work thinks its either gone fast or slow.
nobody contradicts me ,even if were doing differant things

a better example is when people agree that a week has gone fast

shurly it must be different for each person

but it never seems that way

Time goes slow when you have time to think about what time it is ?
Use the same environment just change the conditions..
ie1.. on a train take nothing and notice what goes on around you..(watching the cables on the wall, the guy in front of you reading a book, the woman sitting next to you starring at the window) and do it for half an hour. You'll notice that time drags on.
ie2.. next time purchase a newspaper and read that on the train. If you concentrate with minimul interference on the articles that are of interest to you and do that for half an hour, you'll see that time flies.


Therefore preoccupy yourself with something and time flies. Eg: writing a test, daydreaming(depends on your visualization technique and how real you think the experience is), talking to an interesting person, listening to music (ie: see avatar),etc...

Over the past few weeks , I have noticed something a bit strange with my perception of time.
On several occaasions, I have heard a song playing on the radio, and have been busy doing something. After what seems like ages, I'll suddenly realise that the same song is still playing when I'm sure that much more time should have passed.
It just seems strange because usually it would be the other way round. when I'm preoccupied, I would usually miss the end of a song as being busy would make the time go faster.
I think I've only noticed this apparent slowing of time with music, because perhaps my mind would use the length of the song as a sort of subconsious marker of time passing, if that makes sence. So it is more obviouse than if there was not really anything else going on for me to judge time by.
Like I said, it's only been the last few weeks that I have been noticing this. It's a really odd feeling, and must have happened about a dozen times at a rough guess.
Maybe it's not time slowing though, perhaps it's me speeding up. Though from my perspective both are the same thing I suppose.

Originally posted by pantha
Over the past few weeks , ...

Well if it's a song you can't stand then off course it will seem a lot longer time duration has passed. On the other hand if it's something that lies within your interst then time flies. How many times you've heard the song also factors in. Some songs get better with each listen and some songs are listened to once is more than enough.

Yeah I can see where you're coming ffrom websurfer, but this is different.
I can't really describe it. It's something that has only been happening recently. If it was just down to how much I'm subconsiousley enjoying or disliking a song then I would have been having this feeling for the whole of my life. I wouldn't have just suddenly noticed it in the last few weeks.

TrentReznor:
Thats exactly what I mean. I very rarely find someone that contradicts me when I say this week went by fast or slow. The vast majority of the time if someone says this week went by fast or slow I feel the same way. A group of people seem to agree with the passing of time as being 'fast' or 'slow', even if they do different things.
For me waiting, which over my life I've had to do lots of, doesn't always seem dragged out.
I was out at the bar last night having a great time, I was there about an hour, but it felt like 5.
For me I know that it isn't wether I am having fun or being bored.Atomic

pantha:
That kinda happened to me in the car, the music played was less then the time it should have taken me to get from A to B...but then I relized I was going a lil fast....

Originally posted by zero_snaz

pantha:
That kinda happened to me in the car, the music played was less then the time it should have taken me to get from A to B...but then I relized I was going a lil fast....

There was one instance when I was in the car with my husband and it happened. He's a 35 year old boy racer so perhaps that explains that one away
Mind you if I think about it, if time around me had slowed down, then I would have heard the song playing as if it was a record on a gramophone that needed winding up. but then I wasn't paying attention to the songs at the time so I wouldn't have noticed I suppose.
I can't explain it, it's just been a bit odd that's all.

hmmmm, the point about the gramophone has got me wondering.
Do you think that it's possible that some people do move through time at a different pace to others? Perhaps when you come across people that seem to talk really fast and do everything at a fast pace, to them it doesn't seem fast and other people just seem slow to them.
perhaps we are all travelling at our own pace, but just can't realise it unless we could walk in someone else's shoes and see life as they do.

time does fly imo, in a sense. if you lead your life where you are always on the go go go, you will look up one day and realize 10 years have passed. taking time to decompress and enjoy a day slowly is time well spent...

think about this: when you get old and you see your years winding down, will you want time to fly by or will you try to slow it down? then think about why older people will do things like sit in the back yard in a chair reading a book all afternoon, or just sit and watch the trees....