How long ago do you feel?

When you touch something you're actually feeling how it was in the past because it takes some time for the nerve impulse to travel from your skin to your brain. nerve signals can travel around 60 metres per second in the arm so if your arm is say one meter long then you're feeling the world 16 milliseconds ago. it takes even longer for the brain to process and figure out what's going on and that can add another hundred milliseconds. pain signals travel more slowly sometimes too slow to stop you getting hurt but if you touch something hot or painful the message can bypass the brain the nerve signals only need to travel to the spinal cord where motor nerves take over and cause a reflex to pull back instantly all before the brain even gets the signal. information and fiber optic cables moves at about two hundred million metres per second so a message from your hand to your brain can take longer than sending a message across the country over the internet.