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  • Time flies when youre having fun! But time is a constant right? So, why does it feel

  • like it goes at different speeds?

  • Hey guys Julia here for the last time

  • Fascinating research into time reveals just our fluid our sense of time really is. Ever

  • been in a car accident and it seemed to unfold in slow motion? Well a study published in

  • the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that we feel like time slows down when

  • an object is coming toward us and time speeds up when it’s not moving or moving away from

  • us. The researchers believe this has to do with threat perception. Parts of your brain

  • fire that handle how we think about ourselves in relation to what’s going on around us.

  • So when something comes towards us, we need to plan what to do. If something moves away

  • from us, that might makes us relax, as it’s no longer a threat. Time slowing down or speeding

  • up is really all in your head.

  • Another study published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological

  • Sciences found that time slows down if the stimulus is novel. The researchers think this

  • could be because youre taking in more information at once than you normally do. So if something

  • new is heading right towards you, time might feel like it slows wayyyy down.

  • And you don’t have to wait for a life threatening situation to experience time slowing down.

  • One study published in the journal PLOS one found that purposely falling 15 stories does

  • the trick. The researchers had test subjects bungee jump 15 stories and estimate how long

  • they had been falling for. The terrified participants said they fell for about 4 seconds when really

  • it was only 2.5. And to test the idea that the slowing of time perception happens because

  • our brain is taking in more information -- like a slower computer churning through data -- the

  • researchers gave the participants watches that flashed numbers faster than they'd be

  • able to read under normal circumstancesThey figured, if they were sucking in all

  • this info, then they would read the numbers on the watch face, but as the participants

  • fell, they still couldn’t do it. So time didn’t reeeaaallly slow down for them. It

  • seemed slower in retrospect because of the emotional charge of the situation.

  • But time seems to speed up too. Most of the time shifting we experience happens when we

  • get older. We settle into routines and every day just becomes a familiar blur of work and

  • stress. Some researchers believe time picks up speed as we age because each moment becomes

  • a smaller percentage of our lives. When were 10, a year is a tenth of our lives, when were

  • thirty, it's only 1/30th. Thisproportional' theory, as it’s called, was put forth in

  • 1877 by Paul Janet.

  • But it doesn’t explain everything. Studies like one published in the journal Acta Psychologica

  • found that time doesn’t actually speed up for older people. When they are asked out

  • count off a minute, they don’t do it any faster than a younger person. Or when asked

  • about how long the past month felt to them, there wasn’t much difference between people

  • of different ages. So our perception doesn’t change as we get older. Our memory of time

  • does.

  • The researchers proposed that novel experiences are the most memorable and as we get older,

  • we have fewer novel experiences. They also point to a phenomenon called 'forward telescoping'.

  • This where you think something memorable feels like it happened only yesterday, when really

  • it was TWENTY years ago, like when Toy Story hit theaters… . Basically memorable events

  • are clearer in our memories than less memorable ones, so we wrongfully assume they happened

  • more recently. Once you realize your error, man do you feel old.

  • Speaking of time flying by. It seems like just yesterday I joined DNews for the first

  • time. But really it was over a year ago! But now it’s time to say goodbye. While I’m

  • saying goodbye to DNews, I’ll still be around on the internet. Come find me on my Tumblr,

  • That’s So Science and on twitter @julia_sci. Thank you so much for being the best fans

  • and for all your thoughtful comments!

  • Got any other science questions for the DNews team? Thanks for watching DNews. I’ll see you around.

Time flies when youre having fun! But time is a constant right? So, why does it feel

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