Slashdot Mirror
Can Time Slow Down?
Ponca City, We Love You writes "Does time slow down when you are in a traffic accident or other life threatening crisis like Neo dodging bullets in slow-motion in The Matrix? To find out, researchers developed a perceptual chronometer where numbers flickered on the screen of a watch-like unit. The scientists adjusted the speed at which the numbers flickered until it was too fast for the subjects to see. Then subjects were put in a Suspended Catch Air Device, a controlled free-fall system in which 'divers' are dropped backwards off a platform 150 feet up and land safely in a net. Subjects were asked to read the numbers on the perceptual chronometer as they fell [video]. The bottom line: While subjects could read numbers presented at normal speeds during the free-fall, they could not read them at faster-than-normal speeds. 'We discovered that people are not like Neo in The Matrix,' Eagleman said. 'The answer to the paradox is that time estimation and memory are intertwined: the volunteers merely thought the fall took a longer time in retrospect'."
damn you agent smith, no wait, damn you oracle...no wait....damn you all!
*shakes* fist
Donald Ray Moore Jr. (mindrape)
Suspected Terrorist
Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooo
I remember reading this here a year or 2 back.
What a stupid question. Of course it can. Ever had to sit through 3 meetings in a row?
Turns a matter of hours into a matter of weeks.
Skiffy is Spiffy, but Ort is tort.
...if I believe that conclusion. When I was browsing on Slashdot one April, and everything turned pink and ponyish, I swear that day lasted several months, at least.
I question the testing method. It should include subjects sitting in a cubicle after 4:30pm on a Friday.
In an effort to conform with internet communication standards, please note that the above comment is 100% biased opinion
I just tried it. People lie to you.
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
Exactly. I suggest strapping chronometers to people's windshields and involving them in accidents without asking them.
In truth, time is an illusion...
Lunch time, doubly so.
All I want is a kind word, a warm bed and unlimited power.
At speed of light (or near) by the time we age one second the plane will have already buried itself into the ground killing all occupants. So you're right, we'd be one second older, but mostly because they'd be dead. So time doesn't really slow down, death speeds up. Your argument fails.
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
I have a problem with the heliocentric UNIVERSE!