Einstein and his "butt on Fire"

Einstein famously said to make his theory of relativity easier for the layman to understand: "If a man sits opposite a beautiful woman for an hour, it will seem as if only a minute has passed, but if he sits on a hot stove for a minute, it will seem more than an hour. This is the theory of relativity."

One study accidentally found that the "beauty and hot stove" metaphor was more than just a clever whim. Some time ago, I was rummaging through the old stacks of books in my neighborhood library when I came across the metaphor in its original form. Surprisingly, the passage about beautiful women and hot stoves was actually a summary of a short laboratory report by Einstein. It's clear that the great theoretical physicist actually experimented with his own hands (and the rest of his body) to come up with this simple metaphor. Here's the full text of the experiment:

The Effect of external perception on time dilation

Einstein

Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Abstract: If a man sits opposite a beautiful woman for an hour, it will seem as if only a minute has passed, but if he sits over a hot stove for a minute, it will seem more than an hour. This is the theory of relativity.

Since the observer's frame of reference has a strong influence on the observer's perception of the passage of time, and the observer's mental state may also influence the perception, I set out to explore the passage of time in two very different mental states.

How I did it: I tried to get a stove and a beautiful woman. But unfortunately, I couldn't get the stove because the lady who helped me cook wouldn't let me go anywhere near the kitchen. But I still managed to snag a 1924 Manning Bowman muffin maker. This muffin maker should be as effective as a stove, for it can be heated to a very high temperature. Finding a beautiful woman is more of a problem because I live in New Jersey now. I knew Chaplin and had been to his company for the premiere of his new film City Lights in 1931. So I asked him to arrange a meeting with his wife, the film star Paulie Gerda, who was of considerable beauty.

Discussion: I took the train to New York to meet Miss Gerda at the Grand Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station. She was so gorgeous that when it seemed like a minute had passed, I looked at my watch and saw that it had actually been 57 minutes. I rounded it up to an hour. When I got home, I plugged in the muffin maker and let it heat up. Then I sit on the muffin maker in long pants and a long white shirt with the hem untucked. When it felt like an hour had passed, I stood up and looked at my watch to see that it had actually been less than a second. To keep the units consistent between the two statements, I counted it as one minute. Then I called the doctor.

The verdict: The observer's state of mind has a big impact on the perception of time.

Einstein's scholars don't think so, but the "Beauty and Hot Stove" experiment might also bring to mind another of his interesting quotes: "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be research, would it?" Indeed, Einstein was a bit verbose. Look at his explanation of wireless communication: "Wireless telegraphy is not at all difficult to understand. The average telegraph is like a very long cat. When you pull its tail at the New York end, it mews at the Los Angeles end. It's the same with wireless telegrams, except without the cat." The words are said to keep people awake at night.