I mean, seriously. We can move around freely in the three spatial dimensions. Why not in this fourth temporal one? Is time really not just running forward or backward? Give it some thought.
2006-08-06 15:45:04 · 20 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Because of Einstein, we often call time the fourth dimension. Special relativity shows that time behaves surprisingly like the three spatial dimensions. The Lorenz equations show this. Length contracts as speed increases. Time expands as speed increases.
2006-08-06 15:50:15 · answer #1 · answered by seamonkey_has_da_loot 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
At face value this question seems overly elementary: time is the fourth dimension and we can't move freely in it because we just can't!
However, the more I think about it, the less cynical I remain. I think the answer to the question is within one of the implicit "facts" stated. As you stated "We can move around freely in the three spatial dimensions. Why not in the this fourth temporal one?" That got me to thinking about our ability to move freely around in the three dimensions and I realized that this freedom is relatively new! Sure, since life on earth began it has always moved in two dimensions (and three for some special animals such as birds and fish). Two dimensions is a given. As for the intelligent species (humans) the third dimension was only conquered very recently. To do this we've had to invent the technology to make it possible (just like birds adapted the necessary physical features). Thus, because the conquering of the third dimension by man is very recent, and only through the invention of technology to do so, I'd hazard to say that the reason we can't freely move through the fourth dimension is because the technology doesn't yet exist. And maybe it never will, as stated by Einstein.
2006-08-06 16:18:18 · answer #2 · answered by A Guy 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Maybe moving only forward in time is the equivalent of being able to fall down but not up. We don't move all that freely in our three dimensions.
2006-08-06 15:55:06 · answer #3 · answered by Lleh 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
We do move through the time dimension and at different speeds.
Ever been outside the bathroom and need to get in but someone is in there already. Time suddenly really slows down and a full minute takes an hour to pass.
2006-08-06 15:50:35 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Time is a fourth dimension. That's all I know - never took the course that explored this dimension. Had I, maybe I would of been able to answer.
2006-08-06 15:50:41 · answer #5 · answered by Venus 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Alas, carbon-based life-forms are ill-suited to time travel. The acceleration required for us to move back or forward through time rips our fragile cells into a mere mish-mash of our former selves, with random protoplasm strewn about whatever container we attempt this in (i.e. we end up as a stain on the wall). Certain subatomic particles (for instance, tachyons) do not have this problem. I guess what I'm saying is "don't try this at home."
2006-08-06 15:53:37 · answer #6 · answered by szydkids 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Time is really not a dimension, but a measurement that moves in one direction, since the earth rotates in one direction around the sun. Therefore, we cannot move through it, we move within the measurement. Since time only moves one direction, we cannot go back and revisit what is past.
2006-08-06 16:03:12 · answer #7 · answered by Lonnie P 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Time follows the laws of thermodynamics. Nature, or the universe, moves to a greater degree of chaos and disorder. So with thermodynamics, it is not possible to restore the previous order (go back in time). Read Brian Greene's "The Fabric of the Cosmos" for a better explanation.
2006-08-06 16:11:11 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
first off, time is not really a dimension. If u think about it, its just a manmade tool. thats all, a tool. Maybe we will one day be able to see the beyond the present, but I dont think we'll ever be able to travel forward or backwards on a manmade scale.
2006-08-06 19:38:24 · answer #9 · answered by joefro_21 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Interesting, I never thought of time as a dimension, but it makes sense. I think being able to move forward or backward in time would have a diseasterous effect. Consider this, if I were to jump ahead in time 5 days and meet you, who had jumped back in time 10 days, but we just happened to meet and interact. A small ripple in time. But then I go back to my time and you to yours. In five days, since that was my future and also your past, that event should happen again. But since that was your past, you would not be there at that same place to meet me, doing the same thing all over again. What would happen then? Would that be some sort of tear in the fabric of reality. Because then what was real to you because it was in your past, couldn't be real to either of us since it never happened?
The short of it is, I don't think we are able to mess with time because our minds wouldn't be able to wrap themselves around such complexites. We'd go insane. Staying in one time is preserving our sanity.
2006-08-06 16:07:19 · answer #10 · answered by larsor4 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋