Originally posted by spy66
Originally posted by SensiblePersonUK
Originally posted by Aggie Man
Is time REALLY a dimension? I mean, it's a man made concept. It has no beginning or end...I equate it to someone asking where the beginning and end
of a circle is....there is none.
Just my 2-cents
[edit on 7-10-2009 by Aggie Man]
Time is a crap name for it. A better description is the 'Direction of Entropy' There is a beginning an end. It is not a theoretical man made thing.
Its a consequence of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Time started when the net entropy of the Universe grew larger than 0, and time will stop when
the net entropy of the universe maxes out, and the net energy denisity of the universe tends to 0.
[edit on 16-2-2010 by SensiblePersonUK]
I am not 100% sure about what you mean by grew larger then 0.
Did it grow larger by a compression or an expansion?
What do you mean by Zero? Is that a static state of energy where there is no changes taking place?
If so how did it grow? How would you explain the Thermodynamic Law from Zero state energy?
Entropy is the process by which energy is converted to a lower form. EG you pass electromagnetic energy into an electric fire and change it to infra
red radiation. You have degraded the energy to a less efficient form, and increased the net entropy of the universe. In the process you have
indicated the direction of the arrow of time.
AT the moment the big bang occurred, the net entropy of the universe was zero, because the totality of the energy in the universe was at its higest
possible state. From that point, as the universe cooled, and energy was used to drive inflation and then create matter, the net entropy of the
universe increased relentlessly, and has done so ever since.
As the universe expands and cools, matter is converted to energy and then to lower forms of energy, eg inside stars to photons of light and X-rays.
Eventually, all the stars will die out, the universe will edge closer and closer to absolute zero. The net energy available to power chemical and
nuclear interactions gets lower and lower, until all interaction between matter and radiation ceases. By then, all the matter in the universe will
have changed to iron 56, being the most stable electron shell state. All the photons in the Universe will have been absorbed, and the universe will
be a cold dead place, where nothing interacts and nothing changes, not even one single atom.
There is a possible further stage, depending of protons are stable or not (not yet proven). If not, matter will then degrade further as iron atoms
break up in a type of cold fission, and electrons and liberated free protons combine to form neutrons, and all the matter in the universe then turns
into free neutrons.
At this point, which will be approximately 10^1200 years in the future, when entropy has reached its maximum possible value, time will effectively
stop, because it will no longer be possible to determine the direction of the arrow of time by reference to entropy. Time will become a meaningless
concept.
You have to get your head round how big the universe will be at this point. It will be approximately 1000 times the diameter it is now and 100,000 the
volume. there will be still possibly the odd single lone photon travelling for billions of years, never ever encountering any matter, or any other
subatomic particle. Even the neutrino flux, the flood of neutrinos that currents pervades every atom of your body, will have ceased. The universe
will be utterly cold, dead and unchanging, and black. Blacker than you can imagine, totally black in all directions, forever.
Its been argued at this point the spinor networks that create the fabric of dimensional space time may then disassociate - the fabric and structure of
space time then breaks down, and the universe will simply melt away to nothing.
[edit on 16-2-2010 by SensiblePersonUK]
