15:59How The World SOUNDS To Animals
Benn Jordan chases a simple question, what does the world sound like to a dog, into the science of time perception. The key idea is critical flicker fusion frequency, or CFF, the fastest flicker a brain can resolve before it blurs into steady light, which acts like the frame rate of perception. Using a flashlight, a stroboscope, and a camera that slows the world by 41 times, he maps the CFF of dogs, cats, rodents, ducks, songbirds, houseflies, elephants, reptiles, and glowing algae. A higher CFF means an animal lives in slow motion while a lower one means the world rushes by as a blur, and because the same clock governs hearing, it stretches sound too. The whole spread is tied to metabolism, body size, and the ancient math of what you eat and what eats you.