Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
What is the Speed of Thought? (not reaction time)?
PAY ATTENTION: I would like to know the speed of an actual thought, not a complete thought, but the speed at which the process starts - and NOT the physiological reaction time. Does anyone understand? I seen this question before - BUT the answerer failed to realize what was REALLY being asked.
How fast does that initial SPARK of thought travel in terms of seconds or milliseconds. Is it as fast as light or faster.
I am NOT interested in Reaction time of body jerk or complete frame of thought - but that initial spark. We speak to each other and instantly the thought process begins so we can carry conversation back and forth. Understand?
4 Answers
- 1 decade agoFavorite Answer
I totally understand your question. It's a little below the speed of light, and here's why:
Thoughts occur in the form of electrical impulses between neurons in your brain, through channels called synapses. Electricity travels at the speed of light, but is slowed down slightly when traveling through a medium.
Additional note: Electricity travels at the speed of light. Some neural connections occur because of chemical impulses, and others through electrical impulses. Electrical impulses govern the "twitch" reactions for most mammals. Chemical impulses generally have a delay of 2 ms, whereas electrical impulses have a delay of .2 ms. Since you asked what the speed of thought is, I figured I'd give you the simplest answer with the highest speed.
Source(s): Science! - Lola FLv 71 decade ago
A thought is not a physical body that moves from place to place, so the phrase "speed of thought" is completely meaningless.
If you mean the neural impulses in the brain, then they do not travel at anything remotely resembling the speed of light. Neural impulses are not electricity (which doesn't travel at the speed of light anyway) but are carried by changes in chemical potential. Their speed is around 10 MPH.
- thylawyerLv 71 decade ago
A "thought" is consciousness's "reading" of the brain's condition over a brief period of time. It's not a wave or a particle. Consciousness of a thought or act usually occurs a few seconds after the thought or act, like deciding what item to buy. Some responses, like fear or flight, are hard-wired so that consciousness hardly knows what is happening until quite a while later.
- ?Lv 45 years ago
degree the temperature of the answer in the previous and after the reaction. --------------------------------------... An volatile nucleus decays right into a greater reliable nucleus. --------------------------------------... 3