You have never seen anyone doing anything at the time it was done. You have never heard anyone say anything at the time it was said. Want to bend your head around some fun facts? Well..........let's try anyway just in case there is something you can glean in order to make your day a little better, uh, or not. When we look up at the sun we do not see what is going on now but around 8 minutes ago. In other words, if the sun suddenly went out you wouldn't know to look for your winter coat until 8 minutes after the lights went out. In so saying, all light takes time (roughtly 186,000 mps in a vacuum) to travel from the point of reflection or emission to the eye and even more time from the eye to activation of our neurons for recognition. Now, with that information in mind, whatever you see someone doing is not in real time but after the action was committed! Yeah, I know......a little boring but here's another one. We all know that sound travels slower (roughly 750mph at 60 degrees and at sea level) so if someone is a little talkative you can simply close your eyes. You'll get the same information but you will hear it later than if you saw it. Even later if you decide to drop the temperature. The lower the temperature the slower the speed of sound. In essense, you do not see what someone is doing, but what someone has done. You never hear what someone is saying, but what someone has said. Now, aren't you glad I brought this to your breakfast table? No, okay then, so it's back to your crosswords and coffee.
Ah, perhaps that explains why somebody of my acquaintance knows exactly what I'm going to say before I've said it...
Ah but Tom, would that not indicate a rather noisy brain? If someone knows what you are going to say before you say it then your brain was activated before you spoke, which is highly recommended in any case. With said brain actively communicating to your speech center it would also have to transmitting brain waves to your acquaintance before you speak. It would seem, that my thoughts are equally as noisy, in as much as my wife seems to know what I am going to say before I say it.........and sometimes before I even openly think it!
@Bobby Cole, thank you for bringing that light and sound travel to my breakfast table. At least I had lost my appetite to eat and in effect you are helping me lose some weight, hahahaaah. But who cares if the sun goes out or went out 8 minutes ago? And who cares if what you heard had traveled for some seconds before reaching your ear? Did you not consider the amount of time that was spent for the light to travel from your eyes to your brain? And how about the processing time your brain had spent so you would understand that what you saw was sunlight? And with the sound, is it the same length of time from your ears to your brain as when light traveled from your eyes to your brain? Now, @Bobby Cole, you are getting me confused there.
Well now Corie, good morning to you! After reading your reply, and putting it to thought I said to myself, " My goodness, such an avid plea for information cannot be denied! I cannot, with good conscience leave this lady, who's questions are wrought with urgency, to sit idlely wondering about the who's, what's and where's of light and sound travel." I do not want to be responsible for the very withering away of your body for the want of knowledge. No mam, not on my watch!! So, for the who care's series. Off the top of my head I would say our friend from the 17th century GalileoGalilee cared greatly for he was the 1st to try to determine the speed of light. Then there was Ole Roemer in 1676 who found that light traveled at a finite speed, and uh, Hippolyte Fizeau in 1849, Albert Michelson in the 1920's and lest we forget the International Weights and Measurements commission in 1983 who finally determined the speed of light to be 186,282 feet per second. Whew, Now for sound. Again we travel back in time (pardon the pun) to Galileo. He first determined the speed, but not thinking about the elasticity of the environment that the sound traveled in. Believe it or not, the speed is approx. what I stated in the above post but has so many variables that there is no comprehensive way to determine how long it takes for the first molecule from the point of exitation to bang up against other molecules in order to reach your ear. Environment is the key to that answer. Oh yeah, the answer to "who cares." Everyone who flies a jet, your ear doctor, military sound analysts, (mortar distance, cannonade etc) and a couple of hundred thousand physicists. Now for the last quest you proposed. The time variable from the input of information to our brains ability to act upon said information. Einstein determined that electrons travel at the speed of light. There is a "but" however....... when it comes to the brain and it's ability to process input it is dependent upon each individual brain (person). Possibly the amount of resistance and compatability of pre-learned information has a lot to do with it. I do so hope that the above piece of study has somewhat satisfied your hunger for information but perchance it has not I can furnish you with mega-links to thousands upon thousands of theoretical scientists who use the above information on a daily basis. As an after note: Anyone who looks up at the stars and knows that what they see took millions and millions of years for light to get here in order for us to observe each and every star and planet............cares.
Bobby your post reminds me of the wagon wheel effect. When the wagon starts moving you can see the spokes of the wheel turning forward, faster and faster as the wagon gains speed, until the reflection of light on the spokes reaches your eye at the same moment as each spoke reaches that same place. then the wheel appears to be standing still. At even faster speeds the wagon wheel appears to be going backwards. I explained this to my boss once. I told him if you look at me from the office I may appear to be loafing but I'm really working quite fast and if you ever see me going backwards you'd better send me a helper. I guess my boss wasn't smart enough to comprehend scientific facts.
I love the reference to the wagon wheel phenomenon! When I was but a lad, it was the sight of the wheel going backwards on the cowboy and Indian movies that first sparked my interest in physics. Now, in reference to your boss, it reminds me of my old drill sergeant. I believe he thought he was a physics instructor in that he taught (the hard way) the difference between static energy and kinetic energy, but alas, with his constant referencing to wanting to only see (touched up) anus's and elbows I knew that he was in need of a physic rather than a study of physics.