Here is why time flies as you age.

[Vdubchaos]

My father told me about this back 10-15 years ago and as I age time certainly seems to fly SO much faster. Truth is, it doesn't actually "seem", it does go faster!

I'm not sure if it was Einstein or who that came up with this but her it goes. This is no rocket science and I'm sure many already know this/common sense.

Regardless....

To a 10 year old kid, 1 year is 1/10th of their life (10% of your life)

To a 30 year old, 1 year is 1/30th of their life (3.33% of your life)

As you age, years get shorter and shorter. By the time you are 60, a year will be 1.666% of your life. A year at that age will go by 5-7 times faster than when you were 10 years year old.

 

[JTsyo]

I think it's more of how you fill your time. When you're a kid there isn't much to do but as an adult you're busy so you don't notice the time passing as fast. I know when I'm on vacation for 2 weeks with no activities planned, the days seem to linger.

 

[Jaskalas]

Regardless....

To a 10 year old kid, 1 year is 1/10th of their life (10% of your life)

To a 30 year old, 1 year is 1/30th of their life (3.33% of your life)

As you age, years get shorter and shorter. By the time you are 60, a year will be 1.666% of your life. A year at that age will go by 5-7 times faster than when you were 10 years year old.

I vouch for that theory, for it is my own as well.

 

[Juddog]

My father told me about this back 10-15 years ago and as I age time certainly seems to fly SO much faster. Truth is, it doesn't actually "seem", it does go faster!

I'm not sure if it was Einstein or who that came up with this but her it goes. This is no rocket science and I'm sure many already know this/common sense.

Regardless....

To a 10 year old kid, 1 year is 1/10th of their life (10% of your life)

To a 30 year old, 1 year is 1/30th of their life (3.33% of your life)

As you age, years get shorter and shorter. By the time you are 60, a year will be 1.666% of your life. A year at that age will go by 5-7 times faster than when you were 10 years year old.

This is for the most part true, and it's also why the first 5 years really cements a person's personality. The first 5 years of someone's life is therefore the most important, when you're trying to grow them into a productive adult, and also these years are the hardest in terms of breaking patterns, formed during that time, later on when you don't like that part of your personality.

year 1 - 50%
year 2 - 75%
year 3 - 87.5%
year 4 - 93.75%
year 5 - 96.875%

So by the time you reach your 5th birthday, close to 97 % of your core personality is already formed. This is why "you live what you learn" is so prevalent; you see mistakes your parents make and repeat them, despite you not wanting to do so, unless you try really really hard not to.

 

[lozina]

I dont buy that. Some things in life cannot be explained by simple math.

 

[Vdubchaos]

I dont buy that. Some things in life cannot be explained by simple math.

You don't buy what? Facts?

How old are you?

I noticed even in my teens time started to fly way faster than when I was a kid.

 

[waggy]

life didn't start to go fast until my kids were born. My daughter just turned 11 and my son turns 7 t his month. I swear it was just yesterday that they were born.

 

[lozina]

You don't buy what? Facts?

How old are you?

I noticed even in my teens time started to fly way faster than when I was a kid.

What facts? That 1 out of 10 equals 1/10? Yes that is a wonderful simple math fact. What does it have to do with human perception of time? Nothing.

 

[Vdubchaos]

What facts? That 1 out of 10 equals 1/10? Yes that is a wonderful simple math fact. What does it have to do with human perception of time? Nothing.

 

[Juddog]

What facts? That 1 out of 10 equals 1/10? Yes that is a wonderful simple math fact. What does it have to do with human perception of time? Nothing.

You're being obtuse on purpose.

 

[purbeast0]

repost.

 

[lozina]

You're being obtuse on purpose.

So explain to my why sitting at the DMV at the age of 35 feels just as painfully long as sitting and waiting at the DMV as when I was 17?

What makes time "feel" like its going fast is what you are doing. Routine makes things go faster.

Like if you drive someplace new that is 100 miles away for the first time, it feels like a long trip.

But if you worked there and did that ride every day, it starts to feel like it goes fast.

 

[nickbits]

That is the theory I came up with as well. Seems logical to me.

Now, my measurement of time is based on my wife's cycle. Seems like it gets shorter each time. A month seems to fly by like nothing at all now. Isn't it still the middle of July?

 

[Brigandier]

So explain to my why sitting at the DMV at the age of 35 feels just as painfully long as sitting and waiting at the DMV as when I was 17?

What makes time "feel" like its going fast is what you are doing. Routine makes things go faster.

Like if you drive someplace new that is 100 miles away for the first time, it feels like a long trip.

But if you worked there and did that ride every day, it starts to feel like it goes fast.

/this

Everything is new when you're younger, as you get older fewer and fewer experiences are new.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Clearly, it's because as you age you move slower and slower due to weakening muscles/increasing mass so the worlds relative time around you speeds up. It's simple relativety.

 

[exdeath]

life didn't start to go fast until my kids were born. My daughter just turned 11 and my son turns 7 t his month. I swear it was just yesterday that they were born.

Growing up is the worst tragedy in human history.

 

[dighn]

I think it's more of how you fill your time. When you're a kid there isn't much to do but as an adult you're busy so you don't notice the time passing as fast. I know when I'm on vacation for 2 weeks with no activities planned, the days seem to linger.

agreed. it's more complicated than that. i've been taking some classes while working, and time slowed down again

 

[MrDudeMan]

It's definitely not a simple math problem. That's a retarded idea that's most certainly not a fact. It's all about your perception of what's important and how distracted you are. Time crawls at work when I'm not busy and that hasn't changed in the last 20 years. It flies when I'm busy and that also hasn't changed in the last 20 years. English class was horrible for me, but calculus flew by at breakneck speed. I remember feeling that way in 4th grade as well. I also feel that way now when I go to stupid meetings versus non-stupid meetings.

This isn't complicated in concept, but that doesn't mean it's easily proved with some retarded elementary math. If you really wanted to try to produce an equation to calculate time perception rate versus age, you'd have to take into account WAY more variables.

 

[MrDudeMan]

My father told me about this back 10-15 years ago and as I age time certainly seems to fly SO much faster. Truth is, it doesn't actually "seem", it does go faster!

Really? It actually goes faster? A year for me is progressing more slowly than a year for you even though we are aging at the same rate? This post and all of the 'logic' it employed to prove your point was a total fail.

What you 'discovered' is that the ratio of your lifespan to each passing year is diminishing. That has absolutely no bearing on time and certainly no bearing on your ability to comprehend it. A second is just as long to me as it was 20 years ago, but now I'm more aware of how precious each second is so I stay far busier. When you're busy, your ability comprehend time is compromised. We aren't CPUs with asynchronous timers running to generate interrupts.

 

[BurnItDwn]

1 hour is 1 hour is 1 hour.
1 day is 1 day is 1 day is 1 day.

Sure, the total duration of ones life increases, and therefore, any given unit of time becomes a smaller percentage of ones totol life duration, however, 1 hour stuck in traffic when you are 30 years old is just as long as when you are 20 years old. It's an hour.

Time flies when you're mind is occupied. Time seems to stand still when you're less stimulated.

I remember summer as a kid used to seem like it was gone in the blink of an eye, because I was free to do my own thing and play and have fun.

The school days each seemed to last forever, because it was horrible and there was no freedom to play or learn, and instead we had to sit still and be quiet and wait for the other kids who were too slow at reading or too slow at doing their problems.

 

[soulcougher73]

Math doesnt always work in reality

1 year is 1 year all the time

 

[BudAshes]

I actually agree with the op.

 

[Franz316]

The busier you are, the faster time will appear to pass. Try staring at a wall all day and see how fast time passes for you.

If you want time to feel slower, don't feel like you have to be in a rush everywhere. It's okay to be bored for a while. Just stop everything and soak it all in for a few moments.

 

[MrDudeMan]

I actually agree with the op.

That has no bearing on the correct explanation for the topic at hand.

Scientists have theories, of course, and one of them is that when you experience something for the very first time, more details, more information gets stored in your memory. Think about your first kiss.

Neuroscientist David Eagleman of Baylor College of Medicine says that since the touch of the lips, the excitement, the taste, the smell — everything about this moment is novel — you aren't embroidering a bank of previous experiences, you are starting fresh.

Have you noticed, he says, that when you recall your first kisses, early birthdays, your earliest summer vacations, they seem to be in slow motion? "I know when I look back on a childhood summer, it seems to have lasted forever," he says.

That's because when it's the "first", there are so many things to remember. The list of encoded memories is so dense, reading them back gives you a feeling that they must have taken forever. But that's an illusion. "It's a construction of the brain," says Eagleman. "The more memory you have of something, you think, 'Wow, that really took a long time!'

"Of course, you can see this in everyday life," says Eagleman, "when you drive to your new workplace for the first time and it seems to take a really long time to get there. But when you drive back and forth to your work every day after that, it takes no time at all, because you're not really writing it down anymore. There's nothing novel about it."

That may be because the brain records new experiences — especially novel and exciting experiences — differently. This is even measurable. Eagleman's lab has found that brains use more energy to represent a memory when the memory is novel.

So, first memories are dense. The routines of later life are sketchy. The past wasn't really slower than the present. It just feels that way.

Look - no ratios! He can't possibly be right then.

 

[Rakehellion]

Truth is, it doesn't actually "seem", it does go faster!

No, it doesn't.