is "time" beginningless?

Question

i.e. no beginning and no end, just circular

why not 'circular'? Causes and conditions can perpetuate 'circularity' withour a replay or repetition of the past in exactly the same manner. The question really is how does one 'transcend' the 'circularity'? A beginning and an end are conceivable only when 'time' is perceived as 'linear'. I agree that 'time' has a relation to 'space'. Physicists today observe that 'space' is 'expanding'! "Space' can also be conceived as 'curvilinear' or let's also use conventional language (with all its shortcomings), i.e. 'circular.

Answer 1

The question "does time have a beginning" presupposes that "time" exists independently of "time". Do you see the contradiction? Time is how we define beginning's middle's and the end's. Existence itslef is defined within the framework of spacetime. So "time" can not have beginnings or ends, because it is not a thing that exists.

So does that mean that time is circular? Actually, I don't think so. To say that time is circular would suggest that events in spacetime would repeat themselves like a film that is being played repeatedly. I don't think there is any evidence so far to suggest that. Also, as I explained earlier, time is a part of the very framework which we define existence, so to say the framework of reality is circular doesn't actually make too much sense.

Answer 2

There will probably be no end to time, although as the Universe cools off and becomes a freezing, nearly-empty void far in the future the meaning of 'time' will probably fade into insignificance.

But time does have a fairly definite beginning. It was in the billionths of a second after the Big Bang. Alert readers will notice that I used a unit of time to describe the space between the BB event and the beginning of time, which is an oxymoron. To those astute readers I say, "you got me!" Frankly, I don't know what it means to state that time began 'after' a particular event. How can you state an interval in a Universe that has no time?

My best guess is that it was done by extrapolation. The Universe was a certain size (probably still smaller than an atom, but nevertheless a specific size) when its energy density dropped to a point where spacetime could have meaning. It was expanding at a certain rate AFTER that, and by extrapolating the expansion curve back to a zero size you can get a passable approximation of the time elapsed before the beginning of time.

I love physics. It is so completely braintwisting, and yet entirely logical!

Answer 3

That question has a familiar ring to it. Like the tree that falls in the forest and no one ...........

Does "time" have any real meaning if there is nothing to perceive it?

Time, according to Einstein's theory, is so relative and dependent on its environment that it probably did have a beginning - or several beginnings. If the matter in the universe was ever grouped close enough to produce a gravitation field great enough, time would literally stand still. As the masses separated and the gravitational fields weakened, time would slowly speed up. Stephen Hawking wrote, "A Brief History of Time." It's not for the meek, but is extremely interesting.

My head's going to explode.

Answer 4

It's impossible to know.

Time exists because we perceive it. However, it was obviously there before we got here.


More daring new theories that challenge things we think we know suggest that the universe might not have began.

There was a big bang, but I mean, before that. It is now thought by some that this inate energy of the universe had no beginning, and has no end. It was never created, and will never be destroyed.

Answer 5

Supposedly modern physicists believe that in the microseconds following the big bang not only did matter and space spring from pure energy, but so did the fourth dimension, time.

Or you could believe that time is like a straight line, beginning at -infinity and ending a +infinity.

Answer 6

You always hear of space expanding from the big bang. Don't forget the fourth dimension of space - time. Time was also compressed to zero at the big bang, so that is its beginning.

The book "Relativity Visualized" describes this in a way that also explains Einstein's special relativity. Check it out.

Answer 7

Time is related to infinity. It has always existed. It will continually be a measure of events. As long as existance continues.When the Universe came into existance its time was reallly a drop of virus into the ocean.Hence the time that the Universe has exixted is relly insignificant compared to the Time that existed before Creation of the Little volume in the Heavens which we call Universe.

Answer 8

Whether it has begining or not, it can not be circular. Because if it is circular events should repeat themselves.

Or the circle is just too large.