Time Doesn't Exist, Clocks Do.?

Question

What do you think? I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with this statement, just throwing it out there for a discussion.

Answer 1

Compare two different statements. Clock exists. Time exists. In both statements, the word 'exist' is used, but they are not used in the same way. The former is a material thing, but the latter is non-material. The first thing to look into is if both non-material and material exist in the same way. I have to say they don't. I.E. a number exists, but not in the way a clock exists.

Take a caliper or a ruler for an example. You can measure a radius of your coffee cup for instance. The capiler is a measuring device and what is being mesured is present. It's right there. By making a measurement using a caliper, you can be sure that there is really a cup, which is being measured.

The problem is that if a clock can actually measure time. Unlike caliper, even if a clock is measuring something, that something is not presented to us the way a coffee cup is. Clock may be moving, but how can you infer that time really is moving?

In short, we cannot directly tell if a time exists at all. In short, you can even say time is not moving, it's just a clock that's moving. Such a view may require a few extensive modifications in physics dealing with time, but it can most likely be done.

If time really exists and if what a clock says is really the time itself, my question is this: what time is it now in Mars? I wonder who can answer that question. There is time? Ok, tell me what time it is in Mars now. :)

Answer 2

I beg to differ. Time does exist, but clocks do not. As long as there is this universe, time does exist and events occur in nice sequential order. And universe has been and will be here for a very very long time, practically infinity.
On the other hand, clocks are made by humans and humans may not last one million year, and hence the clocks.
When you compare infinity vs. one million year, we might as well say that clocks do not exist. I mean, why even bother mentioning something that existed for a blink of time?

Answer 3

The word time is what we use to describe entropy. Entropy is a progression from a higher state of order to a lower state of order. In the beginning of "time" the big bang filled the universe with an even dispersion of gas. This is a high state of entropy or order. As "time" progressed, clumping occurred and the first super suns were born and so on and so forth till here we sit today. A long slide towards chaos. This progress of entropy is one way. That is where the saying comes from "You cannot un-break an egg". Increments of this steady decline towards chaos can be measured in many ways. The device used to measure these increments are called clocks. Not all clocks are the same but they all do the same thing.

Answer 4

Time doesn t exist and clocks do because time is a concept that was created by humans. Time is based on the orbit of the earth around the sun. 365 orbits is one year. One spin of the earth is one day. Fours seasons on earth is one year.

The theory of time falls apart when you go to another planet in another system that has a different orbit and even a different number of seasons. Say a planet that orbits around the it s star 500 times and has six separate seasons. And what happens when the orbit is the same speed as earth s orbit? That make the idea of time questionable and further pushes the idea that time doesn t exist. Or at least is relative to the planet your standing on and therefor cannot be measured in such a way that is the same across the universe.

Answer 5

I started to feel that time didn't exist when I bought a fake plastic antique clock from an op shop a few years ago. It had a sticker on it warning - 'Working, but no hands'. It literally has no hour, minute or second hands. It ticks, and the little spinning pendulum underneath works - but there is no time to be told. Watching it feels like finding a loophole in physics.

Answer 6

on our earth, way back when, astronomers, watched the sun and calculated that if the place lines on a circle, when they break it down, they came up with an approximate 24 hours in a day....this is because what we interpret as an hour, and when the sun come up and goes down and then comes up the next morning...24 segments called an hour....
OK what if another planet way out of our system, and this planet is ten times our earths size..and way back when their astronomers figures that there is 110 hours in their day, because that is when the sun goes around and comes up on their planet...OK we travel through space int he future, and come across this planet, and we say we need some sleep because we have been awake for 16 hours, and they laugh and they say they have longer lunch hours than that....
so time is only relevant to the system it is in place at that time in space...and time is not the same everywhere...
yes our clocks would register the same on their planet, but it would not register a whole one of their days, and their clocks would work here too, but again it would not properly show one of our days...
so what we call "TIME" it is all made up to serve the system it needs to serve...

good luck
smile

Answer 7

Time,like any other form of measurement (such as height,width or depth)
is an arbitrary concept that humankind uses to make sense of,and give a sense of order to,the universe around him,based on his limited scope of perception.
At any given time our visual ability to perceive a "thing" is measured in 3 dimensions.....
The "thing" is a certain distance and direction from me...This distance and direction is measured by "How far away","How much to my left or right",and "How high or low".
These 3 "locations" can tell you "where" an object is....but when was it there? That's where time plays a part.
Time is the "4th dimension" that allows you to answer "when" an object was "where".

Answer 8

Clock exist to give time a frame of reference.'Naming the Beast' so to speak. Without clocks time is irrelevant.

Society needs clocks not time. Souls have time, but use clocks and in doing so it is wasted.

Answer 9

time exists because we recognize the need to measure decay, the way i see it, clocks exist as a tool to measure decay with.

Answer 10

clocks exist cause there is time and thats the only way we can keep up with time