--- title: Why time flies and why it drags — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Why time flies and why it drags», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Clocks tick at the same speed whatever you are doing, but your feeling of time does not. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/) / Why time flies and why it drags # Why time flies and why it drags Lesson 110 of the world course of Mova's primary school: 26 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/0/) — Clocks tick at the same speed whatever you are doing, but your feeling of time does not. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/1/) — Maya plays Minecraft "for 10 minutes", yet the clock says 4:00 to 5:10, which is 70 minutes. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/2/) — When you are having fun and concentrating hard, you stop noticing time, so it seems to fly. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/3/) — When you are bored or worried you keep noticing every second, so time seems to drag. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/4/) — In maths Josh stares at the clock: "It's moved one minute in, like, an hour. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/5/) — This clock's knackered!" ("knackered" means broken or worn out). - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/6/) — The clock is fine; his brain is counting every tick. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/9/) — Scientists study this by asking people to guess how long things took. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/10/) — Looking back works the other way round from waiting. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/11/) — Grandad says the years fly by when you get older. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/12/) — Nobody knows the full reason, but one idea is that at 10 a year is one tenth of your whole life, while at 70 it is only one seventieth; another is that children have lots of new things to remember, and new memories make a year feel bigger. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/13/) — Games have their own clocks: a Minecraft day and night lasts 20 real minutes, so 2 real hours hold 6 Minecraft days. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/14/) — Game time and real time are different clocks. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/15/) — A clock runs at the same speed all the time; it is our feeling of time that speeds up or slows down. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/16/) — When people enjoy something and concentrate hard, time seems to pass quickly: "time flies when you're having fun". - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/17/) — When people are bored or keep checking the clock, time seems to drag. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/18/) — From 4:00 to 5:10 is 1 hour 10 minutes, which is 70 minutes. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/19/) — In Minecraft a full day and night lasts 20 real minutes, so 2 hours (120 minutes) hold 6 Minecraft days and 1 hour holds 3. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/20/) — A strategy game that passes 50 years in 60 real minutes passes a bit less than one year every real minute. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/21/) — Worry and fear can make a short time feel long; afterwards a frightening moment often seems to have lasted longer than it did. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/22/) — Scientists study the feeling of time with experiments that ask people to guess how long something took. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/23/) — At age 10 one year is a tenth of your life so far, while at 70 it is a seventieth; this is one idea for why years feel faster as people age, but scientists are not sure. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/24/) — New experiences make lots of new memories, and looking back, a time full of new memories feels longer. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/25/) — A 3-hour car ride is 180 minutes, so asking "are we there yet?" every 10 minutes means asking 18 times. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/26/) — From one Christmas to the next is 365 days, or 366 in a leap year, even if it feels quicker every year. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/27/) — Words people use: "knackered" means broken or very tired (UK), "in the zone" means so focused you forget everything else, "dreich" means dull and grey (Scotland), "it's giving" means "it seems like" (young US slang) "boss" means great and "sound" means fine or OK (Liverpool, Manchester). - ← previous: ["Five more minutes" and other waiting games](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/) - next →: [Days, weeks and months](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/111-days-weeks-and-months/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)