Comparing Age and Time
Do you ever get the feeling that time seems to just keep passing quicker and quicker? Like the days and weeks are gone before we know it? When I was 4, turning 5 seemed like it would never come. Birthdays were rare occasions when we were young, but now it feels like they happen too often.
So why is this? Here’s my solution:
We measure time on clocks and calendars, so there’s no mystery there, they never change (and neither does the rotation of Earth). But we measure the way time feels only based on comparison to how other amounts of time feel. An hour feels long compared to a second, but short compared to a year. However, the longest amount of time we can compare any other time to is the length of our own lives.
A year to a 4-year-old is a quarter of their entire lives. But a year to a 20-year old is 1/20th of their entire lives, and five years is a quarter. That means five years to a 20-year-old should feel like one year to a 4-year-old.
This illustration should clear up any confusion about the concept.
So if you’re 20 and you think time is flying, just remember that it’s flying four times as fast to an 80 year old.. scary thought.
Special thanks to Mario C. for inspiring this theory.
4 years ago