The man who saw time stand still

[Still Waters]

One day, a man saw time itself stop, and as David Robson discovers, unpicking what happened is revealing that we can all experience temporal trickery too.

http://www.bbc.com/f...saw-time-freeze

[StarMountainKid]

Our psychological perception of the rate of time elapsing may be creating time as we understand it. The 'actual' rate of time without observers may be different. Or, time as we experience it may be something completely different than what we conceptualize it to be.

I've heard some race car drivers say they 'slow down time' when entering a fast corner to better position their car in the corner.

I had a sort of time 'skip' when I was about 14 years old. A strange feeling came over me and it seemed time either stopped or skipped a few moments. I couldn't explain it then exactly, and I can't now.

[Sean93]

One Christmas eve, I put my face into my pillow upon discovering it was only 1:30AM. I lifted my head back up and it was suddenly 8:03 AM (Aye, I remember the exact TIME).

Probably just knocked myself out.

[Crabby Kitten]

It felt as if time stopped for a moment when I was was knocked down by a speeding cyclist. I was thirteen years old. I can also remember time slowing down when I've fallen down stairs.

[JGirl]

time stopped long enough for me to see the softball in mid air just inches from my face. i remember like it was yesterday, and the thought coming to my mind that it was so odd to just see it not moving. then it smashed into my face - line driver right between the eyes!

[RedSquirrel]

time stopped long enough for me to see the softball in mid air just inches from my face. i remember like it was yesterday, and the thought coming to my mind that it was so odd to just see it not moving. then it smashed into my face - line driver right between the eyes!

I was wondering why the ball seemed to be getting bigger and bigger... then it hit me.

[Imaginarynumber1]

During dangerous or frightening events, etc, the amygdala kicks in and lays down a second set of memories.

The more memories of an event, the longer it seems to have taken.

[spartan max2]

I believe it.

Im sure everyone has experienced one of those moments where it seems like things are going in slow motion. I know I have

[maximusnow]

Nothing ever slows down for me and I have been in some tight spots in my life. My life has never flashed befor my eyes. I always fall and hit bottom in my dreams which are in color.

[CuriousRey]

I was in a car accident about 11 years ago, only one I've ever been in. It was raining quite hard and I hit a very large puddle which caused my vehicle to hydroplane, It sent me off road and I tried desperately to correct by hitting the gas to straighten the car out. In doing so my wheels hit the pavement and twisted the car in the direction of a treeline, brakes weren't working and I was doing about 45 mph. The moment I realized the car was on a collision course with the trees time slowed down to a screeching halt, the 45 seconds it took for me to hit head on with the tree I wrapped the front end of my car around felt like it took several minutes. It was a frightening experience, as soon as the car made impact time felt as if it went back to normal, i'll never forget that moment.

[Mojohand]

Sister Rosemary always stopped time during algebra.

[spartan max2]

It could be possible that our body preconceiving time as slower during tragic events is some survival adaption that humans have acquired.

just my random musings

[Mantis914]

I've been in more situations than I like where this happens and also you can call it like a "Spidey" sense where things are just off or out of control usually in a crowd of people and it makes you want to leave the area immediately or confront whoever is causing the disruption, fight or flight, I guess...

[MJNYC]

Sister Rosemary always stopped time during algebra.

OMG, isn't that the truth? Only I had Sister Anselm!

[DecoNoir]

I remember reading about an experiment in human perception of time a few weeks ago:

Scientist would put people in front of a button that would cause a light to flash when pressed (with a small time delay). As the experiment went on, the subjects brain would compensate for the delay, showing the light flash the moment the button was pressed. After some time, the scientist removed the delay without informing the subjects. Because hte subject was unaware of any change, their brain didn't compensate, causing them to perceive the flash before they even pressed the button.

[rodentraiser]

OMG, isn't that the truth? Only I had Sister Anselm!

Am I the only one who had Sister Mary Elephant?

[Scuzzy]

I think Agent Smith is going to come after these guys very soon.

[SaraT]

All you need to do to slow time down or to make it stop is to choose the appropriate college classes with the right lecturers.

[paperdyer]

All you need to do to slow time down or to make it stop is to choose the appropriate college classes with the right lecturers.

Worthless, boring meetings also have the same effect.

[supervike]

Sister Rosemary always stopped time during algebra.

It was Sister Lois for me, but exactly the same effect.

[JGirl]

speaking for myself and my own experience i think it was more a case of remembering a split second of time rather than having time stop. i think i was able to press the pause button when remembering it - not that i actually saw it stop when it happened, just that i remember it that way.

did that make sense?

[Mantis914]

All you need to do to slow time down or to make it stop is to choose the appropriate college classes with the right lecturers.

As soon as I read that, I thought of that scene in the first Nightmare on Elm Street where the main girl is in class and she sees her friend in a body bag calling her at the door and that one guy is reciting something in front of the class. Creepy...

[rodentraiser]

Well, I guess I am the only one here old enough to remember Sister Mary Elephant. *sniff*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Mary_Elephant

[praetorian-legio XIII]

Um.......time flies when your having fun.

[cyclopes500]

I'm 48 now. I remember when I was a child/teenager the days at school seemed longer. We had say an hour long maths lesson, and then time in the playground, another hour long lesson, and then at 12 the hour dinner period began. One lesson seemed really long to me, the half hour in the playground seemed long, dinner time period was long, yet I've sat at my computer "now" for an hour reading stuff on this site and it seems as if mere minutes have gone past. I think i know why. A child's mind works faster than an adult's, probably as a result of evolution. and because in the prehistoric times there were predators all around. Their reactions were quicker because of it and because they moved faster and avoided getting eaten their genes survived. Reactivate the part of the brain that caused time to seem longer, something like the maths co processor inside 486 DX chips, (i understand my 486 SX didn't have one so i use this this as an example) and i would imagine an adult might see the affects they do now. Also i would think we might be able learn things easier too. Now and again under extreme stress people have reported time slowing down too. half the cause could be because an adult's brain would contain more information, and that information would need to be accessed and compared to other information, before a best course of action is decided upon. I do have one question. We used to overclock our processors by adding or taking out jumpers on the board, if people used drugs to reactivate that childhood maths coprocessor as I call it, would sort of damage would it do to the human brain, because over a certain speed my computer crashed and the operating system files got messed up. You can't format a human brain though can you. Nor reload a brain operating system, or load back up files.