I heard a familiar song on the radio this morning and couldn’t believe my ears when the presenter said it was over 20 years since it was first released.
What twisted my brain even more, was when the presenter pointed out that for most of us, that passage of time was probably nearly a third of our lives.
With average life expectancy being around 80 in the UK, I am pleased to say it is more like a quarter of our lives, but that is still mind boggling.
The song I am talking about was Alanis Morissette’s Ironic, and the 21 years since it was released has gone in the blink of an eye for me.
This did get me thinking though – the first 20 years of my life seemed a LOT slower than the next 20 years (I’m giving my age away here). So why is that?
Physicists say time does in fact go slower at higher altitudes. Scientists from America’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) explain: “If two identical clocks are separated vertically by 1km near the surface of the earth, the higher clock emits about three more second-ticks than the lower one in a million years.”
In other words, the taller you are, the faster time travels. So that explains why time has sped up so much as I have got older. This is good news for short people!
From now on, I am going to spend more time sitting or lying down – this was just the excuse I was looking for!
http://www.science20.com/news_articles/einsteins_relativity_making_tall_people_age_faster_short
https://www.nist.gov/node/605526