Is the experience of time different for an ant and an elephant?

9/17/2018

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Science Story: Is the experience of time different for an ant and an elephant?

Yes. All animals experience time at a unique rate.

This is why pigeons blithely stroll out of the way of buses. For them - the bus takes ages to reach them.

They’ve even done it with F1.

And it explains why flies find it easy to avoid being swatted - they see it coming a mile off, and have plenty of time to finish their meal before making a move.

In fact, humans experience time at a variable speed. Because it is all a matter of how much information you are processing.

When we are young - time travels slower, because we are processing more new information. Remember how long the summer holidays were? And how bored you got in the back of a car? That’s why. The journey was taking much longer for you.

So be merciful. There’s a reason they whine.

And when you are old - you can sometimes be shocked while driving. Because if the information you are processing doesn’t vary (as is the case on open stretches of road) the journey can only seem to take a minute.

You wonder where the time went - and worry if you fell asleep. You probably didn’t - time just sped up massively for you.

But if you crash - then the opposite will happen.

People describe accidents as happening in slow motion. And it is not an illusion or trick of memory - it really happened. They will accurately describe events that took a few seconds in great detail.

This is because their brain ramped up how much information it took in and processed. And so their perception of time slowed down.

All of which means: if you absolutely must kill a bug, be kind and make it quick.

Because however quickly you kill them - for a fly, every death is a slow death.

This information was taken from Quora. Click here to view the original post.

Do you think it's fair that different creatures have different time experience?

#Science #animals #Quora

What are your thoughts on this subject?

13 Comments

bettyschierloh

I have experienced slow motion a couple of times in my life: 1. While going over a cliff in a car, going end over end 3 times, hitting the roof each time in a 1953 Chevy. (no seatbelts in those days) 2. I was in a car stopped on ice behind a school bus when I saw that the van behind me was sliding on the ice and was going to hit me. It came upon me to hit me, but I already had put my arm across my daughter, then I watched as we were shoved up under the school bus. The rear bumper of the bus stopped right in front of my nose. 3. I was driving on an Interstate when an 18-wheeler right in front of me hit the median, the back end flew across the rest of the road and the truck bounced off the median and went right across in front of me to the other side of the road. I missed him by less than an inch, and rolled on by as I heard the car behind me crash into him. IN ALL THREE OF THOSE TIMES, I SAW EVEY MOMENT IN VERY SLOW MOTION. IN #3 THAT IS HOW I COULD HANDLE THE CAR TO SWERVE IN SUCH A WAY TO KEEP US ALIVE. PRAISE BE TO GOD!

Cathie Roth Lonnquist

I liked the article until the end where there is the picture of people crucified in different positions (tacky and uncalled for). The rest of the article got me to thinking. Thanks.

Bob Gorby

I Am Fairly sure that this Is fair. There’s a theory that animals’ longevity is linked to there heartbeat rate. Faster heartbeat 💗, shorter life ( humming birds); slower heartbeat (Galapagos tortoises, elephants, people, larger whales), longer life.

Stanley Howard Jr.

I know what you mean. When I was young, holidays seemed to take forever to come about, now I wonder where they went.

Ian Swindale

When I was at school back in the 1950s the summer school holiday was 8 weeks whereas at most schools it was 6 weeks. Boy oh boy did that last couple of weeks drag on - I was even glad to get back to school. Now I'm in my late 70s the years seem to speed up all the time!!

Marian Spitzig

Very interesting

Keith Scholl

But there's No Time for Sergeants.

ninakamwene

bettyschierloh, Thank you for sharing, you are still with us. Yes! The Universe is caring, and kind, No one transitions at the wrong time. Blessings Quiz lady.