2006-09-11 02:05:19 · 7 answers · asked by goring 6 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Physicists are not only lumping space and time into one lump - they are trying to lump all of the universal forces into a single formula. Unification or 'the all in one' formula.
Space and time are directly related. Both the gravitational fields and acceleration, both directly related to space, effect the rate of time.
Time runs slower in a gravitational field and when the observer is accelerating or traveling at speeds, especially approaching those of light. This is not an easy phenomenon to conceptional because we don't expedience this in our everyday existence - but we can proof it is true by valid experimentation.
There are a lot of things in reality that we cannot "touch" - magnetic fields, radio and sound waves, a beam of light and so on - but we can see the effects of these things and we know from experience and experiment that they exist.
Time is one of those things - if we paint a wall, we know if we wait an hour, it will dry. Nothing else will do the job - we just have to let the passage of time get it done.
2006-09-11 02:29:05 · answer #1 · answered by LeAnne 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Short answer - because you can't touch space either.
Long answer - because according to the late Dr. Einstein space and time are intrinsically connected. As we travel through space we travel through time and if we travel through time we can also travel through space. You can think of the space between my computer and yours as a huge bedsheet stretched between them - with this analogy in mind picture yourself trying to walk across the sheet. It would flex and bend unter your weight, right? As a result our computers would be pulled closer together and although you would have to wallk the same distance to get here (or I there) it would appear to an outside observer that our computers had moved closer together and if he/she were to apply a second bedsheet over the same distance the actual distance would, in fact, be less. Well, it turns out that space-time does a similar thing - not because of an applied mass, but more because of intense gravitational fields or other unknown forces that can bend the fabric of the universe into all kinds of crazy shapes.
I hope this gets you started...
Cheers.
2006-09-11 09:15:30 · answer #2 · answered by scotter98 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Strictly speaking, we cannot touch space either. Space can be occupied by matter, and we can touch the matter, but we cannot touch the space. Space and time are both abstract concepts that, together, describe the state of the universe.
2006-09-11 09:09:31 · answer #3 · answered by dm_scorpio 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it is useful in describing any 4 dimensional point in the universe relative to the observer
2006-09-11 09:12:11 · answer #4 · answered by dsldragon2002 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because space and time are deeply and fundamentally connected. They are the coordinates we use to describe 'when' and 'where'.
2006-09-11 09:10:06 · answer #5 · answered by poorcocoboiboi 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
time is the 4th dimension. When we talk about where an object is, we talk about its location relative to 3 dimensions plus where it is in the timeline.
2006-09-11 09:11:29 · answer #6 · answered by Funchy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
we experience time
2006-09-11 09:06:13 · answer #7 · answered by Spadesboffin 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋