What is Time?

Question

Plain English Answers please.
I have my own definition, but want to see other peoples ideas.
Clocks are only mans way of measuring time, if clocks didn't exist time would.

I'm liking ddntruong's definition, but if time didn't exist until the big bang, then I cannot see how the big bang could have happened.

Answer 1

Time, universally, only existed after bigbang. It is a dimension in Space-Time Universe and is used to measure the Duration. Words like minute, second or hour are man made for understanding the duration but Time itself is not man made.

Cheers

Answer 2

What a load of bull. The whole point of relativity is that time is an essential fabric of the universe, hence space-time. You need four coordinates to accurate describe an event - 3 spacial and a time coordinate. And just like spacial coordinates, the time coordinate needs a reference point. The passage of time is also relative, but it does have distince properties - it can only go forward in this universe. Gravity affects time in very predictable ways, just like it affects space.

Time is not made up, it's not unknown, it's not some mystical voodoo concept. It is a part of our universe, it is the fabric of space-time.

Answer 3

Time can be described by entropy or disorder, for example I can observe a glass breaking but I cannot observe the bits forming into a new glass. On a large scale entropy is observed all the time and we ask ourseleves why does entropy exist? And why can we not observe objects in opposition to entropy and see aged objects form into a new object.
On a very small and simple scale entropy can be observed reversing, ie two bollard balls colliding and then moving away.

Time in a human perception can be described as past (memory-present (conscious)-future(imagining).

Many questions that need to be answered is why does time move forward like entropy?
Why can't time stop and reverse?
Is time seperate to entropy or is entropy time?

According to Special theory of relativity, light is constant and this is were time dilation comes into it.
If a person travelled in a spaceship and reached 99.9% the speed of light then the person would experience entropy and time would dilate (slow down).
People should not confuse this as a time machine or a physical state which means time HAS physically stopped!
All this means is that time is constant and nothing else can exceed light speed not even light itself.
So the person inside would not be able to move forward because his arm would exceed light and this cannot happen according to mc2. Entropy would be affected by time dilation but still cannot be a conclusion that entropy stops when time dilates because the spaceship and the astronaut is moving and even this creates entropy!
If entropy didn't exist would time exist?
But then, how can space exist without time?
So space doesn't exist and now we are at singularity! aaahhh

we cannot provide a conclusion... yet. Isn't science great?

Answer 4

Time is NOT a natural feature of our universe. Time is strictly a concept invented by our species to separate events into past, present and future.

Even our concept of time is not absolute but relative. One kind of experiment that shows this has been done with two precisely synchronized atomic clocks. One remained behind while the other was flown around in a high-speed jet. When the two clocks were brought together again they no longer matched. Which of the two clocks showed the right time? Neither and both!

You flash off into space at near the speed of light while I stay behind on Earth. If I could see a clock on your spaceship it would appear to be moving slower than mine; I'd think that time was running slower for you than for me. At the same time, though, if you could look back and see my clock it would appear to be moving faster; you'd think that time was running faster for you than for me. Which of us has the right time? Neither and both!

There is no Cosmic Master Clock ticking away the "correct" time for the universe.

Answer 5

It is something that stops everything happening at once.
According to the Steve Miller Band, it keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin into the future, but I think it slips into the past, with the vortex of the future sliding past us like a 4 dimensional bow wave.

Answer 6

Two distinct views exist on the meaning of time. One view is that time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence. This is the realist view, to which Isaac Newton subscribed, in which time itself is something that can be measured.

Read all about it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time

Answer 7

Julian Barbour explains in his book, "The End of Time", how he was able to re-derive General Relativity without making any use of time at all as a variable. We chose to use time as a variable simply because it's easier for us to describe reality that way. It is admittedly very difficult to "do physics" without making use of time as a parameter, but not impossible.

Answer 8

Time is often described as the "Fourth Dimension", Time can be slowed down or sped up using space travel.

Essentially time is the dimension in which all things age and depreciate.

Answer 9

There is this book called "about time" by a guy called Paul Davies....he tells it like he is talking to a layman (like myself) best read it.....as there are so many aspects to the subject....and lots of examples to back up what the scientist claim.....its a great book.

Answer 10

Time is the measurement we use to communicate effectively