Is this just me or is this common?
I had this same problem. Dropping the object clears it right up.
Boy, you’re going to carry that weight a long time.
Sorry, thought the questuin was answered.
That’s called getting tired. What am I missing?
It’s a quirk of your nervous system.
Nerve cells tend to be a bit reluctant to fire at first, and once you get them going, they are a bit reluctant to stop. What this results in, for a lot of different stimuli, is that you get this weird integration effect that happens in your nerves, long before the signals reach your brain.
Objects will feel heavier, hot things will feel hotter, painfully sharp things will feel sharper, etc.
For extremely heavy objects or for lighter objects over a much longer time period, muscle fatigue will also be a factor. The cells in your muscles literally start to run out of food.
FWIW, many years ago I did some work for a neurobiology researcher, and I created a few different test machines that could measure things like this.
I think its along the lines of stored muscle mass depleting at a exponitial rate. Perhaps a loss of oxygen level or CO2 build up in the blood is involved.
There will be a lot of variables affecting how long it takes:
Fitness - obviously.
Training - I am thinking Marines yomping long distances carrying ridiculous backpacks.
Motivation - Carrying the groceries home to make dinner for that crucial second date.
Well, the simplest, least waggish answer would be that your arms become fatigued, thus it’s harder to carry the object.
But I agree, things DO seem to violate laws of physics when you have to haul them a while.
I used to have to commute into the city, and walk about 6 blocks to the client site from the subway station. The walk back was always harder. To be fair, at the end of the day I was fatigued from working all day, but that computer bag definitely felt heavier in the evening than in the morning.
The walk was also about 8 blocks longer (subjectively speaking, LOL). That may have been enhanced by the fact that there was a very slight downward slope from the subway to the office.
I’ve also noticed that on a long driving trip, the return leg is longer than the outbound leg. Fatigue from the trip, eagerness to get home, or as I generally accuse my husband “How the hell did you manage to get them to add another 15 miles to this highway???”.
Some things do get heavier the longer you carry them. If you’re lucky they’ll grow up and carry you someday.
If you’re going downhill, you’re getting closer to Earth’s center of gravity and objects feel heavier. If you’re going uphill, more strain on your body, things feel heavier. Level surface, your arms get bored and mess with your head, telling you things are heavier. If you start drinking before 8:00 AM, you’ll find lots more answers like this. I’m going back to bed.
The more you can shift the weight to the skeletal structure of your body, the longer you will be able to support the weight. Weigh held in your arms held away from your body is supported by your muscles, which fatigue easily. If you hold the weight tight to your chest, the force of the weight rests on your skeleton which doesn’t fatigue.
One other factor is that the more your core muscles are trained to work together, the tighter and more upright it can keep your core. This also helps keep the force of the weight into your skeleton. If you have a weak core, your muscles struggle to keep your body upright and hold the weight firmly. This uses additional energy which contributes to more fatigue. I would compare it to a chair that has weak connection points. The chair will wobble and not be able to hold much weight. But if you make those connection points strong, the chair will be able to hold a lot of weight. The same is true for your body. A tight core will be able to keep your body stiff when holding weight which allows it to hold the weight easier.
It’s lactic acid that builds up in your muscles that causes the fatigue and soreness.
This reaction was commonly used as a punishment when I was in the military. You would be told to hold an object (usually a rifle or a book) straight out in front of you, arms fully extended. The first two minutes your reaction is “this is simple, I could do this ally day”. After about 10 minutes, your arms are shaking and you can barely hold the object. It had nothing to do with arm strength, just fatigue from bearing weight for extended time.
Bonus Transcendental Meditation™ points for anyone that knows what movie this is from.
Tribes. The hippy kid who mediates while holding the buckets.
Right up there with “Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring” , “Billy Jack” and “Buster and Billie”.
The mass of the Earth is constantly increasing due to micrometeorites and the rotation is slowing down due to tidal forces. Both of those increase the local downward pull on things with mass and make objects genuinely heavier. You’re just very, very sensitive.
Grudges are like that.