At What Rate Does Thought Travel?
Thought travels 111 feet per second, or about a mile and a quarter per minute. Elaborate experiments have been made by Professors Heimholtz, Hersch, and Donders, to ascertain the facts on this question, the result of which was that they found the process of thought varied in rapidity in different individuals, children and old persons thinking more slowly than people of middle age, and ignorant people more slowly than the educated. It takes about two-fifths of a second to call to mind the country in which a well-known town is situated, or the language in which a familiar author wrote. We can think of the name of the next month in half the time we need to think of the name of the last month. It takes on the average one-third of a second to add numbers containing one digit and half a second to multiply them. Those used to reckoning can add two to three in less time than others; those familiar with literature can remember more quickly than others that Shakespeare wrote “Hamlet.” It takes longer to mention a month when a season has been given than to say to what season a month belongs. The time taken up in choosing a motion, the “will time,” can be measured as well as the time taken up in perceiving. If it is not known which of two colored lights is to be presented, and you offer to lift your right hand if it be red and your left if it be blue, about one-thirteenth of a second is necessary to initiate the correct motion.