Einstein theory of relativity

[Bill DawesParticipant @billdawes]

[Bill DawesParticipant @billdawes]

Did old Albert's theory cover why time compresses with age?

Going through my wife's 'bible' the other day (her annual planner, copies going back to the early '80s, she kept saying "guess when it was when we bought this or that or when we decorated the lounge etc".

I was always out by several years, what I was convinced was two years ago turned out to be five, three or four years was seven years etc.

Last year went like 4 months, planning for Christmas was about 3 weeks ago.

What's going on?

When I was younger I used to think that time in my golden years would drift along sleepily and slowly with eternally long days. The real event has turned out to be an escapade of never having time to do everything we planned to do.

Bill D

[Mark P.Participant @markp]

I know exactly what you mean Bill.
Mark P.

[Roger Provins 2Participant @rogerprovins2]

As one ages any given time period becomes less and less of a percentage of your entire existence and therefore seems shorter.

Edited By Roger Provins 2 on 13/02/2017 22:25:16

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I could swear I had a bath last week but my wife says it was last October

Neil

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I am sure I did more in a day when I was younger than I do now, nowadays I feel that the time passes far quicker than it did then. I know my motivation is less but that I feel is old age and I try to make adjustment for that as I look at something and think, 'Do that tomorrow' but it rains the next day! Putting things down and still seeing them weeks later in the same place? What is that hiatus?

Clive

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

At twenty years old I went at mach 5 – here now at 70 I am on my fifth mac!

Rik

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Time flies like an arrow – Fruit flies like a peach !

(sorry!)

[Simon Williams 3Participant @simonwilliams3]

Why did he never find time for a.haircut?

[JAParticipant @ja]

I have long since realised that time speeds up as you get older. Now everything is a rush.

I cannot believe I am 70. I suppose my body does tell me but my mind does not. Sometime soon it will come to an end.

JA

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

The late dearly lamented Gert used to say to me "When are you going to grow up ? "

I didn't realise it was an option ??

[Simon CollierParticipant @simoncollier74340]

This phenomenon is so universally reported and acknowledged that it is, effectively, true. A contrasting situation would be if you were traveling at relativistic speed, say a space ship at close to the speed of light, you would perceive time normally, yet when you returned to earth you will find yourself in the future. In one case, time is constant but you perceive it speeding up; in the other, your perceive it normally but it is speeding up!

Christmas now comes around so quickly that I have decided to have a tree and decorations only every second year.

[Steve WithnellParticipant @stevewithnell34426]

"what do you want to be when you grow up Son?"

"Peter Pan".

[Stephen BensonParticipant @stephenbenson75261]

Einstein believed that time did not exist, there is no time only clocks

Edited By Stephen Benson on 14/02/2017 08:33:22

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Consider the quantum multiverse theory that all things and options (variations) happen and it is our individual perception that is limited such that we only experience a limited subset. That subset we also experience with our inherent processing limitation as linear time. Therefore we see our own progression as linear quanta of that timeline in a unary-verse. As we age and mentation slows down that experience cannot process quanta as quickly – hence we skip alliquots along that timebase and skip along apparently traversing faster.

If we heighten our senses.. excercise for instance or if we have a lull in other processing needs (slow day at work, waiting for an appointment) then brain can spare more power to process more of those timeline alliquots – and time appears to slow down again.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

School summer holidays were endless, and so was each day. Out in the woods or down the river, come home before it was dark or when you were hungry.

Mike

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Hi Bill

General Relativity has nothing to do with it. It's human perception.

There is increasing evidence of a correlation between time perception and stress, google it.

It's also interesting to note that the waking human brain has no perception of how long it had been asleep. All this generally indicates that there is a link between levels of consciousness and time perception. In terms of the old age thing, as has already been muted, you do get that fore-shortening that comes with the nearness of the end compared with the distance of the start. Personally I think we just spend more time dozing and less time doing.

regards Martin

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

My daughter found somewhere a theory that middle age is somewhere in your twenties because of this perception of time passing faster as you age.

Martin

[Roger Williams 2Participant @rogerwilliams2]

Ive just reached 70 as well, bloody hell !. I asked a mate when do we finally stop looking at women and he said 97. What a relief…..

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

I've been thinking about this time thing a lot recently, strange to find it on the forum. My conclusion, for what it's worth, is that it takes much longer to do things as we get older. 20 years ago I could service the car, dig over the veg. plot, then go into the little w/shop and bore a cylinder, then go out for a quick pint., all in a day. Now it takes me half a day just thinking about it. PS @ 75 now.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Old is x + 10 where x is your own age in years.

Martin

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Posted by Martin Kyte on 14/02/2017 09:05:58:

Hi Bill

It's also interesting to note that the waking human brain has no perception of how long it had been asleep.

regards Martin

When I set my alarm for the night, I will always wake up about 5-10 minutes before it's due to go off and I don't always set it to the same time. Yet if I set no alarm, I will sleep for as long as I like.

As we know, you can't wake yourself up or know what the time is to get up to when you're asleep, and I've always wondered what's going on in that case. This seems to imply that the body does infact co-inside with time in a physical relationship. My father does the same thing, he can't get out of the habit of waking up at 5:30 for work, when he has no need to anymore.

So the body probably has some sort of internal "clock". Brain chemicals run through cycles during the day, most notably to let you know when you're sleepy. People who do nightshifts tend to suffer from different sets of health problems than those who don't on a regular basis. There's a lot of biological evidence to suggest that our bodies do at least follow a kind of daily pattern with regards to certain brain functions.

This doesn't answer my question of how I can seemingly wake up to a particular hour with unerring accuracy, but it might go some way to explain it. People tend imagine of the "subconscious mind" in a kind of impulsive or irrational sense, but it might demonstrate how sophisticated it can be at other things.

Beyond this, the only evidence we have of time is not clocks, but surely the movements of the planets, stars and our own sun.

Michael W

[Gordon AParticipant @gordona]

Ageing can be compared to filling your car with fuel and going on a long journey. It seems to take ages for the fuel gauge to go from full to half, but an increasingly rapid time from half to empty!

Gordon.

[Gordon TarlingParticipant @gordontarling37126]

Life is like a toilet roll – the nearer you get to the end, the faster it runs out.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

So the body probably has some sort of internal "clock". Brain chemicals run through cycles during the day, most notably to let you know when you're sleepy. People who do nightshifts tend to suffer from different sets of health problems than those who don't on a regular basis. There's a lot of biological evidence to suggest that our bodies do at least follow a kind of daily pattern with regards to certain brain functions.

Michael W

It absolutely does have an internal clock. The master clock in the brain is called the Suprachiasmic Neucleus and runs on something around a 25 hour cycle when free running. It is synchronised by predominantly blue light via receptors in the eye.

Have a look at

**LINK**

for a presentation, and

**LINK**

for the group page.

regards Martin

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