Time

Can somebody please explain to me exactly what makes time a physical entity? I do not understand it at all. Einstein talked about the space time continum, however I do not see how time can be something physical, surely time is just an experience and all that existed in the last moment is still present in the next. Sorry for the dumb post but if someone can explain I will be grateful

Talk to this guy: Moduli

He's a scientist.

Originally posted by michael1983l
Can somebody please explain to me exactly what makes time a physical entity? I do not understand it at all. Einstein talked about the space time continum, however I do not see how time can be something physical, surely time is just an experience and all that existed in the last moment is still present in the next. Sorry for the dumb post but if someone can explain I will be grateful

Without time everything that has ever happened, will happen and is happening, will all happen at once.

What does that mean in a physical sense? It means all matter would be occupying all space at once. What will this do to matter?

Well this means that everything MUST be infinitely dense, in an infinite amount of space, in an infinitely small amount of space as well.

What I think is that everything would have to be packed into a singularity. Where everything is so dense that it implodes, well it already imploded because there is no time.

Kind of like the big bang singularity if you will.

I know I am going to be bashed for this, but that is my own personal take on the issue at hand. Hope that helps.

Originally posted by cluckerspud
Talk to this guy: Moduli

He's a scientist.

Hahahahahaha I laughed out loud for a couple minutes thank you for that.

I kind of understand what you are getting at and thanks for your input. However my mind still does not understand how exactly time works, are you saying for every moment that passes mass is moved into a new place/state. Does it really multiply that much? after all a moment is infinate. Is it not more likely that time is just a human creation? After all if you place a stone in a box and then somehow stop time, does that mean it no longer exists or that it is just in a static state?

reply to post by michael1983l


It's not.. It's a measurement. Basically time is light. And you can't time travel

reply to post by mb2591


A great philosipher tells us what they think and great scientist tell us what they think and how they got there. I guess the question I am asking is are you a phillosipher or a scientist?

Originally posted by michael1983l
I kind of understand what you are getting at and thanks for your input. However my mind still does not understand how exactly time works, are you saying for every moment that passes mass is moved into a new place/state. Does it really multiply that much? after all a moment is infinate. Is it not more likely that time is just a human creation? After all if you place a stone in a box and then somehow stop time, does that mean it no longer exists or that it is just in a static state?

I mean if there was no distinction from one event to another then all events would happen at once.

It would mean nothing can move because there isn't any distinction between where it is, and where it isn't.

Nothing is ever at rest, anything can be at rest to a relative point of view, but to be actually at rest is completely impossible.

Originally posted by mb2591
reply to post by michael1983l

 

It's not.. It's a measurement. Basically time is light. And you can't time travel

Enlighten us on how time is light please, sorry for the terrible pun there.

Ok, time is NOT light, and time travel is theoretically possible, though not as has been depicted in pop culture.

You should watch Michio Kaku's series of documentaries on Time.

topdocumentaryfilms.com...

Enlightening, and I think the last episode in particular will answer your question. Hope this helps!

reply to post by michael1983l


First of all you need to know what time it is. Two or three sentences dosn't constitute a thread. I suppose your fingers got tired ? Please see the guidelines for posting a thread on ATS. This isn't ATS quality. I know I'm not a Mod too. But the Mods have said the members are the quality. Two stink'in paragraphs guy ? come -on.

reply to post by randyvs


Am I supposed to write war and peacr to ask a simple question? does that make this pkace a good forum. Clear and concise is the best form of English, reading two paragraphs for somebody to tell you their hair is blonde is just boring. If you have a problem with my thread report it to the moderators and let them decide, otherwise STFU as your input has no posative input on the debate.

Time is theoretically possible to travel if it actually existed as something. But time is just something we perceive and we perceive time by light at light speed.. So hence the "time is light" statement. The closer to the speed of light you get the slower you perceive time but that doesn't mean that "time" is actually changing you will still get old just as quick. But that whole time is a dimension thing is why I believe science (the physics branch) has sort of hit a stand still.

Originally posted by michael1983l
Can somebody please explain to me exactly what makes time a physical entity? I do not understand it at all. Einstein talked about the space time continum, however I do not see how time can be something physical, surely time is just an experience and all that existed in the last moment is still present in the next. Sorry for the dumb post but if someone can explain I will be grateful

Time, is merely the distance between two separate points. How much time you have depends on how long it will be before you have to "change" from the place you are to where you will be going. You could change from one chair to another next to you and you could do it in a short time or long time. If you substitute the word time for "change" it makes better sense. All things constantly change including the universe. Can we travel in time ? Better yet, can we change from where we are to where we want to be, or can we change from where we are to where we were. We can, and we do change from where we are to where we were, but we call it memory, yet a memory exists as long as we exist in it. We can look at a picture of anything, and it is a moment of change frozen in time. You have captured it on film and are bringing that moment with you through change (time).

Time is not physical, but it is the by product of physical. It is one with the physical yet it is not, and we call that "space-time". And time for you on Earth passes at a different rate of change than say if you were on some other large planet because the rate of change near the body pulls on the physical and increases the rate of change. So change takes place at different speeds everywhere.

You perceive time not because you change however, but because you, or at least part of you is non physical, Let's say that part is energy, but we can also call it the soul, and it is free from physical change. It never ages. It is witness to the constant change everywhere, and can know that change (time), is happening. It's all very fascinating to say the least. Do you want to time travel, remember something. But if you want to relive the moment, you'll have to slow the memory down to normal speed, because there are no speed limits on a memory, but it can be done. But I warn you it may give you a headache if you try. I have done it. It's amazing.

But to answer the question in the simplest of ways. Time is change, constant change that can be perceived by the human soul.

reply to post by michael1983l

Check out the guidelines or make your own.
I don't give a rat race rot you do pal. No SnF
Your header I clicked and your thread generated that response. Seeing you don't like my answers I trust you won't be asking me any further questions.

cheers

Originally posted by michael1983l
...after all a moment is infinate. Is it not more likely that time is just a human creation? After all if you place a stone in a box and then somehow stop time, does that mean it no longer exists or that it is just in a static state?

Yes, a moment is infinite, but only as a snapshot of the present, or in other words it's infinite in a 'sideways' manner.

You can't actually "stop time" for any long period, because it is primarily an illusion.

Time is merely a marker for an event.

Think of time the way you experience it in an out-of-body or dream state... that is how time really works. It appears to be much more 'real' or solid in 3D, simply because it's an agreed-upon concept. It's kinda like paper money, it's only worth the amount that's printed on it as long as we all agree that it's worth that much.

reply to post by michael1983l



Sometimes a subject is so complex it need not contain many words to convey the matter. Time is a complicated subject, so don't worry about how short your OP was, you did fine to put it in the form of a question and put it out for all of us to chew on for a while. There's a lot of dumb threads on right now. Yours is not one of them.

Hello OP, first off, time doesn't exist, it is a Human invention.

Secondly, several posters ponder whether "time travel" exists or is possible.

Time travel is demonstrated every time an astronaut returns from space, especially the ones in orbit for awhile. They are time travelers, into the future, this is a fact...

There are multiple theories of time.

Some say that it does not really exist- that it is an illusion.

I like to think of it as this way - not technically saying I believe wholeheartedly that this is the correct scientific theory of time, but I do like to entertain the idea - makes for interesting thoughts

First think about space - there are an infinite number of fractions from one point in space to the next. Imagine you need to get from point A to point B. Start at point A and go half way to point B. Then go half way from where you ended up to point B. then go half way from where you now ended up to point B. You following? Although you are getting closer and closer to point B, you will never get there because you are only going halfway there from where you started each time. You can make an infinite number of moves towards your destination, but never get there. Eventually, the distance traveld with each step halfway to point B, gets infinitely small. You are basically not even moving, even though you get halfway closer to point B from where you were last.

So now imagine breaking time down like that - - break time down into the 'smallest unit' imaginely possible. When a unit of time is infinitely small, it is pretty much impossible that anything is even happening within that "period of time". It would appear that time has stopped, or nothing is happening, just as when you move at infinitely smaller distances, it appears that you do not move at all.

Time is, perhaps, an infinite number of events, an infinite number of "nows" just strung together with us jumping from one to the next, causing the illusion that time is moving when in fact it is not.

Imagine a flip book - When all the pages of still pictures are strung together, it gives the illusion of something moving, or happening. But when slowed down, you can see that it is nothing more than a series of still pictures.


I doubt this really answers your question, but hopefully it has presented a new way to think about time for you

Hope I was making any kind of sense haha

reply to post by deanGI5


You might say that proof of what you just said can be shown in a photograph. It "snaps" an image of "now" and holds it in the form of the picture image.