Do you have time for a massage?
While researching this, we came across a German physiologist called Karl von Vierordt, who lived 1818-1884:
He developed what has come to be known as Vierordt’s Law: a short duration of time tends to be overestimated, e.g. ‘you’ve only 5 minutes left in this short massage session’, while a long duration of time tends to be underestimated, e.g. ‘you’ve still got 30 minutes left in this long massage session’.
This relates to the duration we perceive or estimate in doing something, compared to the actual duration in doing it. It can also vary depending on how easy or difficult a task may be, e.g. ‘that’s a snip, it will take me 5 minutes’, when it may take more time actually; and ‘that’s a whole lot of work, it will take me hours’, when it may take us less time actually.
We may find, as in massage, that time goes quickly when we’re enjoying ourselves, as the saying goes, and we may find things ‘easy’ in this case.
Yet we may have a treatment such as a Sports Massage requiring more pressure and which may be uncomfortable. We may not enjoy this as such though it will be beneficial, even if we find it ‘difficult’ and the time may seem to go slowly.
Vierordt was involved with medicine, and created the sphygmograph:
This is a contraption used to estimate blood
pressure. It is taken to be the forerunner of the modern sphygmomanometer:
Come and have a massage or other treatment. Whatever amount of time you may book. It will, we trust, be time well spent.
