Why Time Flies : A Mostly Scientific Investigation by Alan Burdick EPUB, MOBI, TXT
9781451677010 English 1451677014 "Time" is the most commonly used noun in the English langua≥ it's always on our minds and it advances through every living moment. But what is time, exactly? Do children experience it the same way adults do? Why does it seem to slow down when we're bored and fly by as we get older? How and why does time fly? In this witty and meditative exploration, award-winning author and New Yorker staff writer Alan Burdick takes readers on a personal quest to understand how time gets in us and why we perceive it the way we do. In the company of scientists, he visits the most accurate clock in the world (which exists only on paper); discovers that "now" actually happened a split-second ago; finds a twenty-fifth hour in the day; lives in the Arctic to lose all sense of time; and, for one fleeting moment in a neuroscientist's lab, even makes time go backward. Why Time Flies is an instant classic, a vivid and intimate examination of the clocks that tick inside us all., "Time" is the most commonly used noun in the English langua≥ we all live in it and organize ourselves around it. But what is time exactly? Do children experience it in the same way as adults do? Why does it slow down when we're bored and fly by as we get older? In this witty, graceful, and intimate exploration, award-winning author Alan Burdick takes readers along on a quest to understand the clocks that tick inside us all. For the better part of a decade, Burdick, a New Yorker staff writer and National Book Award finalist, journeyed among scientists studying the most vexing questions about our perceptions of time. Along the way he visits the most accurate clock in the worldwhich exists only on paper; he discovers that "now" actually happened a split-second ago; he lived in the Arctic, in a bid to lose all sense of time; and, for one fleeting moment in a neuroscientist's lab, he even made time go backward. The result is an instant classic, a vivid and deeply moving examination of the stuff that makes us human. Why Time Flies is not a book about space-time (although, Burdick learns, scientists have figured out how to add an extra hour to our day in case we someday live on Mars). But make no mistake, you'll never look at a clock the same way again. Why Time Flies will forever change your relationship with time., A brilliant, witty, and erudite trip by The New Yorker staff writer and National Book Award finalist, Why Time Flies is the story of one man's quest to understand his interior clock (actually tens of thousands of interior clocks, one per cell) and why we are all fascinated by our own. Bringing us on an adventure through the world of time, Burdick spends time with scientists who study time and time-keepers who keep it straight today. A scientist explains to him that what we call "now" happened a tenth of a second ago. So Burdick ponders how the mind and body perceives time and what are we to do with that if we could find out. Why does time slow down when we're bored, speed up in the summer, and fly by as we get older? Why do I need a deadline? Why am I jet-lagged? "We talk about time all the time: we find or lose time, like a set of keys; we save and spend it, like money. Time creeps, crawls, flies, flees, flows, and stands still; it is abundant or scarce; it weighs on us. Bells toll for a 'long' or a 'short' time, as if their sound could be measured with a ruler. Childhood recedes, deadlines loom." Why Time Flies is science reportage, contemplation, and bemused pursuit. Burdick interviews the woman in charge of the world's official clocks, describes an experiment of one man's months long stay in a dark cave, travels to the Arctic to live where there is constant daylight, jumps from a 100 foot tower to test stress-related time perception, and relates how time first became a measurement. Moments, hours, days, years all fly; but how, and why?
9781451677010 English 1451677014 "Time" is the most commonly used noun in the English langua≥ it's always on our minds and it advances through every living moment. But what is time, exactly? Do children experience it the same way adults do? Why does it seem to slow down when we're bored and fly by as we get older? How and why does time fly? In this witty and meditative exploration, award-winning author and New Yorker staff writer Alan Burdick takes readers on a personal quest to understand how time gets in us and why we perceive it the way we do. In the company of scientists, he visits the most accurate clock in the world (which exists only on paper); discovers that "now" actually happened a split-second ago; finds a twenty-fifth hour in the day; lives in the Arctic to lose all sense of time; and, for one fleeting moment in a neuroscientist's lab, even makes time go backward. Why Time Flies is an instant classic, a vivid and intimate examination of the clocks that tick inside us all., "Time" is the most commonly used noun in the English langua≥ we all live in it and organize ourselves around it. But what is time exactly? Do children experience it in the same way as adults do? Why does it slow down when we're bored and fly by as we get older? In this witty, graceful, and intimate exploration, award-winning author Alan Burdick takes readers along on a quest to understand the clocks that tick inside us all. For the better part of a decade, Burdick, a New Yorker staff writer and National Book Award finalist, journeyed among scientists studying the most vexing questions about our perceptions of time. Along the way he visits the most accurate clock in the worldwhich exists only on paper; he discovers that "now" actually happened a split-second ago; he lived in the Arctic, in a bid to lose all sense of time; and, for one fleeting moment in a neuroscientist's lab, he even made time go backward. The result is an instant classic, a vivid and deeply moving examination of the stuff that makes us human. Why Time Flies is not a book about space-time (although, Burdick learns, scientists have figured out how to add an extra hour to our day in case we someday live on Mars). But make no mistake, you'll never look at a clock the same way again. Why Time Flies will forever change your relationship with time., A brilliant, witty, and erudite trip by The New Yorker staff writer and National Book Award finalist, Why Time Flies is the story of one man's quest to understand his interior clock (actually tens of thousands of interior clocks, one per cell) and why we are all fascinated by our own. Bringing us on an adventure through the world of time, Burdick spends time with scientists who study time and time-keepers who keep it straight today. A scientist explains to him that what we call "now" happened a tenth of a second ago. So Burdick ponders how the mind and body perceives time and what are we to do with that if we could find out. Why does time slow down when we're bored, speed up in the summer, and fly by as we get older? Why do I need a deadline? Why am I jet-lagged? "We talk about time all the time: we find or lose time, like a set of keys; we save and spend it, like money. Time creeps, crawls, flies, flees, flows, and stands still; it is abundant or scarce; it weighs on us. Bells toll for a 'long' or a 'short' time, as if their sound could be measured with a ruler. Childhood recedes, deadlines loom." Why Time Flies is science reportage, contemplation, and bemused pursuit. Burdick interviews the woman in charge of the world's official clocks, describes an experiment of one man's months long stay in a dark cave, travels to the Arctic to live where there is constant daylight, jumps from a 100 foot tower to test stress-related time perception, and relates how time first became a measurement. Moments, hours, days, years all fly; but how, and why?