Time Warped summary

If you've ever taken a vacation in a warm, southern country, you might've observed that its inhabitants have a completely different idea of punctuality. While most people in the northern hemisphere set an acceptable limit for lateness of, say, five minutes, elsewhere it is not uncommon for people to turn up a whole two hours late.

This is because every society has its own rules and conventions concerning time, which its members share and understand.

In which year did Michael Jackson die? It must’ve been ages ago, right?

You might be surprised to learn that it was as recent as 2009.

Have you ever wondered why you get hungry at certain points of each day? Or why we tend to get tired around the same time each evening?

This is the work of an inner biological clock that times all of our bodily functions.

As you've learned, your brain influences your bodily functions and your perception of time. But how exactly does the brain do this?

Firstly, the brain's frontal lobe is responsible for our perception of the passage of time, as well as the creation and storage of memories and the development of ideas.

Imagine that you're sitting in a lecture, bored out of your mind. As hard as you try, you find it difficult to keep your eyes off the clock as the seconds tick away.

If you glance up at this clock at just the right moment, the second hand seems to rest longer than you expect – so much longer, in fact, that you wonder whether the clock has stopped. Of course, an instant later, the hand moves.

When you think about last week, do you imagine time laid out in front of you, from left to right?

Many people – approximately 20 percent, in fact, tend to “see” time in this way.

Think ahead to next winter, and imagine yourself sitting on the couch, wrapped snugly in a blanket and reading a gripping novel.

Can you feel the soft blanket around you? Perhaps you can even smell the freshly baked Christmas cookies.

Have you ever been telling a story that you're convinced is from your own life, only to have a friend interrupt to complain that you're recounting their experience, not yours?

Why does this happen?

You've probably noticed how time flies when you're doing something enjoyable – like watching your favorite TV show – and how time drags endlessly when you're bored.

But have you noticed that longer periods of time, such as the passage of a year, are also subject to the time-warp effect?

Imagine a very busy day: you're rushing to meet several deadlines, you have a lunch date you can't cancel, and your phone just won't stop ringing.

On days like this we tend to feel that if there were just a few more hours in the day we'd complete all our tasks with time to spare.

Often when we look back on our past, the events seem to blur together and their order becomes difficult to pin down.

What year did the recent London bombings take place? When did Princess Diana die?