I noticed this as a teenager. And came up with the "ratio" theory on my own.
For example, I was thinking, when I was young (say 7 years old), summers seemed to have dragged along forever. Summer vacation was a loooong time. By the time I was in the 8th grade, it seemed to fly by.
So the idea goes by like this:
* We measure time interval compared to the number of intervals we have already experienced.
* For one 1 year old each new month is a 1/12 of their life-time, so it seems like a pretty long time.
* For a 80 year old, 1 month is 1/960 of their lifetime. A new month, will fly by because it is a much shorter time.
* To have the same subjective experience of a month passing, an 80 year old would need to spend 6+ years or so (80/12)
* To have the same subjective experience as an 80 year old's month, a 1 year old would just wait for about half a day to pass by.
Totally bogus idea probably, but I was proud of myself for figuring it out on my own back then.
Comments
I noticed this as a teenager. And came up with the "ratio" theory on my own.
For example, I was thinking, when I was young (say 7 years old), summers seemed to have dragged along forever. Summer vacation was a loooong time. By the time I was in the 8th grade, it seemed to fly by.
So the idea goes by like this:
* We measure time interval compared to the number of intervals we have already experienced.
* For one 1 year old each new month is a 1/12 of their life-time, so it seems like a pretty long time.
* For a 80 year old, 1 month is 1/960 of their lifetime. A new month, will fly by because it is a much shorter time.
* To have the same subjective experience of a month passing, an 80 year old would need to spend 6+ years or so (80/12)
* To have the same subjective experience as an 80 year old's month, a 1 year old would just wait for about half a day to pass by.
Totally bogus idea probably, but I was proud of myself for figuring it out on my own back then.
I think not as bogus as you think.
We all have a biological clock ticking seconds since epoch(birth) much like a unix computer.
Time outside your head is compared with time inside your head.
So yes, at 50 an outside year is only 1/50th measured in seconds compared with the current total number of seconds inside your head.
I had the exact same thought when i was like 10 y-o :)
Me too, not sure what age though.