Why time flies

[pokerfan]

I was thinking about this the other day...

We've all heard it said. As kids, adults talked about how fast the years were flying by. For us, an hour was an eternity. Boy, I am so feeling this at this point in my life. As I was looking around for scientific explanations, I came upon this web site which gives an interesting theory. What do you think?

Logtime: The Logarithmic Explanation

Since the linear view of time perception seems inadequate, it is reasonable to look for a non-linear alternative. The observations we make about the apparent shrinkage of our years as we age strongly suggest a logarithmic scale: stretched out at the low end and compressed at the high end.

That our time perception should be logarithmic can be easily rationalized (although proving it is a different matter!). The simple premise of Logtime, from which the logarithmic relationship can be derived (see Appendix ), is that the human mind judges the length of a long period of time, such as a year, by comparing it with current age. For example, a year adds 10% to the life of a ten-year-old, but only 5% to that of a twenty-year-old. For the twenty-year-old, two years are required to add 10%.

The Logtime hypothesis is that it is this percentage that we perceive, not the years themselves: to the twenty-year-old, two years will seem to pass as quickly as one year will seem to the ten-year-old. Similarly, three years to a thirty-year-old and four years to a forty-year-old, etc., will seem to pass equally fast. (This argument was recently found to have been used, comparing a "child of 10" with a "man of 50", by Sorbonne professor of philosophy Paul Janet, date unknown but quoted in an 1890 book by the eminent Harvard philosopher and psychology pioneer William James , who seemed to accept the description but added his own explanation of an underlying psychological cause which would be difficult to analyze quantitatively.)

http://journeythroughgrace.blogspot.com/2007/11/time-does-fly-does-it-not.html

If this hypothesis is true, then our perception of time looks something like a slide rule:



Note that logarithmically speaking, 32 (10*10^0.5) is halfway from 10 to 100.