• Is Time Real?
    107 replies, posted
[QUOTE=rundevil;32641164]time is a measurement system, but a worthless one really as we barely understand why it's trying to measure.[/QUOTE] You have a very good point, I'm more curious to why we want time, than what it is.
I like to think of time as a checkpoint system. It's only relative when you need it to be. Time tells me when my haircut appointment is. It serves me as a checkpoint. Time is the structure of our lives. We base all we do in this world because of time.
[QUOTE=DiBBs27;32641247]I like to think of time as a checkpoint system. It's only relative when you need it to be. Time tells me when my haircut appointment is. It serves me as a checkpoint. Time is the structure of our lives. We base all we do in this world because of time.[/QUOTE] I like this point of view, but I think time is such an odd concept overall.
[QUOTE=rundevil;32641164]time is a measurement system, but a worthless one really[/QUOTE] why [QUOTE=rundevil;32641164]as we barely understand why it's trying to measure.[/QUOTE] how
The question is really easy to ask, but even if you get told the right answer most people wouldn't even understand it.
[QUOTE=Rombishead;32640276]Time is a measurement of the movement of atoms. If the atoms didn't move there would be no time, so really are atoms real?, because at the end of the day its just how we perceive the frequencies of the cosmos.[/QUOTE] It isn't measuring the movement of atoms, it is a measure of progress of the change in state of atoms. If all atoms were not moving, "time" as we know it would still exist. The movement of atoms is simply kinematics and really isn't all that related to the concept of time in this context.
Does the fact that we have a concept of time make our lives feel shorter? I was envying my cat earlier today, because it doesn't know about seconds, days or even years. To top that off, cats are not even aware of their own impending death.
[QUOTE=BRadNowacki;32640294]Yes but what about spacetime?[/QUOTE] Spacetime is the strongest evidence we have that time is real. The notion of spacetime is that time and space are intrinsically linked as part of a big manifold that makes up the universe. The question of whether time is real is no more uncertain than whether space is real. We can measure the difference between the rates at which time ticks between reference frames, which tells us that all reference frames have certain, measurable notions of time. Plenty of physical laws not only depend on time, but on the direction of time, like wave function collapse. For more on the subject, have a look at Heinz Dieter Zeh's [i]The Physical Basis of the Direction of Time[/i].
[QUOTE=PederPauline;32641614]Does the fact that we have a concept of time make our lives feel shorter? I was envying my cat earlier today, because it doesn't know about seconds, days or even years. To top that off, cats are not even aware of their own impending death.[/QUOTE] How blissful Johnnymo's description just made me realize that a clock is literally measuring time with space. Each second is a certain amount is millimeters long. So you can effectively judge time, by using space as a template. Hence the clock.
[QUOTE=DiBBs27;32641844]How blissful Johnnymo's description just made me realize that a clock is literally measuring time with space. Each second is a certain amount is millimeters long. So you can effectively judge time, by using space as a template. Hence the clock.[/QUOTE] You are not far off. Lots of relativity textbooks describe clocks as the analog of a ruler for time-like intervals.
Maybe the Doctor can help us out! [video=youtube;vY_Ry8J_jdw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY_Ry8J_jdw[/video] [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Bad post. This section is for actual debate." - JohnnyMo1))[/highlight]
Nothing is true or real.
[QUOTE=ColdWave;32642576]Nothing is true.[/QUOTE] That statement can't be true because being true implies it is false.
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;32642605]That statement can't be true because being true implies it is false.[/QUOTE] Now you understand.
Time is a slow, podding thing.
Yes we can even mess with it.
[QUOTE=ColdWave;32642576]Nothing is true or real.[/QUOTE] why
it's real
Just relative to the observer.
Time is simply a way to keep track of events that happened. Sure, time is real, but as humans, we have broken it down into measurements we can compute and understand.
[QUOTE=Dogchow33;32647801]Time is simply a way to keep track of events that happened. Sure, time is real, but as humans, we have broken it down into measurements we can compute and understand.[/QUOTE] Yeah, time is our thought of keeping order of events, time may be very different to someone else in the universe, or not mean anything at all, they could go by a whole different thought of their own.
[QUOTE=Lertez;32650060]-time may be very different to someone else in the universe-[/QUOTE] Why so?
If nothing changed, "time" would not exist. If we have nothing to compare it to, there's no "time".
Are you real OP? I don't know. What is the definition of "real" anyway?
I quite like the thought that the only moment that exists is the instant. What if now is the whole universe? I am experiencing the feeling of memories, and think I perceive something called time. But my mind, all of the perceptions and memories I'm currently having, they are a singular instant of my brain activity. To argue there is another instant to this one is simply to beg the question that there is another instant just because this instant of brain activity tells me there is.
[QUOTE=Ond kaja;32640307]You should try to distinguish science from philosophy. This is a philosophical question, because it tries to convince the viewer that time is man-made with arguments rather than using scientific methods. Of course, until you can come up with a scientific method that can prove it, this remains a purely philosophical question.[/QUOTE] Philosophic and scientific questions often intersect on an axiomatic basis. Not so much in practical work.
Fourth dimension etc
[QUOTE=Rad McCool;32650363]Why so?[/QUOTE] Because we measure time to how it affects us, Its sort of the measure of record keeping if you will, and to someone in a different galaxy, they have different gravity, there are in a different place in space, and in a different in what we call time. "Time" as we know it is just a thought made up by us to keep track of things.
Time is what you feel when you bend over the kitchen counter <3
Thermodynamics.
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