What is Time?

Question

A philosophical question that should have an answer based on physics and our human experience. Simple question, but somehow I find it's hard for everyone to answer. According to relativity, the notion of time is closely related to gravity, the only force we know of that is effective on all scales. Clearly a phenomena that deserves close attention in the study of physics.

What is the role of consciousness in time? How big is time, and how can we define a beggining or an end? (ex: what happened before the big bang?)

I am a big fan of what Penrose and Hameroff have said about quantum mechanics and consciousness. I understand what time means in the light of physics, I just have a hard time "comprehending it" philosophically. My personal view is that a lot of the concepts of physics are nothing more than artifacts that help us frame phenomena in a more anthropocentric way. Thanks to all for your insight, I am genuinely interested in knowing what different people think about time.

Answer 1

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Time is memory, no memory then no past,no future just present,here and now.

The space is a creation of memory.

You notice the length of your room because you remember this wall and then see the other wall.

If you do not remember the first wall then there is no distance,no length because first wall is not in your memory'

NO ONE CAN SEE TWO POINTS SIMULTANEOUSLY , NEVER.This is a scientific fact.

Every body sees one point earlier than the other.If there is no memory then you do not remember the first.

Hence there is no first, no second.

No good, no bad,

No judgment ,no comparison.
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Answer 2

You should try asking more difficult questions some time.

God invented time so that everything wouldn't happen at once.

Seriously, Newton theorized that time was constant throughout the universe - it flowed at the exact same rate - independent of all other factors. Needless to say, Einstein and all of the subsequent studies since have blown this theory out of the water.
I have read that time is a smooth continuum - and I have also read that it is similar to other quanta in so much as it can exist only in a packet of certain size. As far as I know, the jury is still out on both of these positions.
I know that if you ask what happened before the big bang, the "cop-out answer" is that the question is nonsensical, since time began at this alleged event - therefore, the term "before" has no meaning. Moreover, most people will tell you that the laws of physics don't apply or break down during this phenomenon. Not particularly satisfying answers, in my opinion.
You are correct that this thing we call time deserves very close scrutiny in physics - if you get a chance, read Stephen Hawking's' book "A Brief History in Time" - And, NO, this was not a "simple question."
Now shift your attention to something more digestible - like walking your dog or eating a fluffer-nutter sandwich - do this before your head explodes.

Answer 3

I feel that time is the answer to everything. In my opinion time does not exist. We merely measure the rate at which something takes to get to point A to point B, or the rate at which matter deteriorates. My theory is based upon the notion that there is a base particle within an atom, and if so this base "unit" is ageless. Therefore it cannot be broken down further. Making it the building block to all things. As far as the big bang theory, it holds weight with my idea but with no explosion. If you try and image the universe before the big bang you think of nothing, but a space full of nothing is still something. A place where only the most basic laws of physics existed, but in atomic forms. Just think of a space full of darkness and a bunch of dust floating around, not visable to the human eye. Here you have the building blocks of life, gravitating towards eachother forming clumps. Creating atoms and further down the line elements, and so on and so on. Anyways u get my point. Btw its just a theory, im a bored person...

Answer 4

Time is many different things with different properties depending on context.

In physics, it is often considered the fourth dimension, creating the "time-space continuum" of Einstein's theory. Here, time is affected by gravity.

In day-to-day life, time is relative. The five seconds spend touching a hot stove seem much longer than the two hours spent watching a good movie. No two people perceive time in the same way: physics proves that the concept of simultaneity is slippery and difficult to define.

In Christianity, time was created by God to give form and order to the universe. Before this point, there was only eternity without time to mark its passage.

In Big Bang theory, it's tough to say if there was time or not given the fact that many of the laws of physics appear in greatly distorted forms.

Answer 5

Time, as they say, is natures way of preventing everything from happening at once. Time is part of the structure of the universe. Time does have a relationship with energy. Gravity distorts time. Time passes more slowly in higher gravity. Time is the fourth dimension and has a relationship with space (space-time) such that as you travel faster through space you travel slower through time.

The nature of time is not a matter of philosophy. Time has absolutely nothing to do with philosophy or consciousness. It's physics and the laws of physics do not depend on what humans think.

Since time began at the Big Bang event it is meaningless to ask what happened before the Big Bang.

Answer 6

What we call 'time' is the dimensional axis along which we measure the distance between 'cause' and 'effect'.

You ned to read some of Penrose and Hameroffs stuff on consciousness (as well as a healthy dose of David Deutch).

HTH

Doug

Answer 7

Real Time and Imaginary Time.
Most of the time I believe that Real Time is not tied to consciousness, but there are instances when I worry about a baboon on a mountaintop wasting my lifetime by thinking about fresh grass and beetles, thus bending the universe his way - away from quantum physics, which is where I want the universe to go (note: just saw a video about the high mountain baboons - they DO have a cool existence).
Imaginary time occurs inside black holes and the centers of suns, and ties antimatter together within its format. We get none of it until we set off an atomic bomb, which only gives us imaginary time in one small spot and for only a brief Significant Moment.
It has been proven (but heavily disputed!) that if you took a mechanical or chemical or atomic clock to another solar system, its movement would function at a different rate. This is shifting of time by one definition, which you can do merely by nosing machines around the galaxy.
On my website where I write about all sorts of physics, I ask the reader to abandon time references when discussing physics - time in minutes or seconds gets in the way of understanding. Instead, I talk about Significant Moments, whose duration is directly tied to the subject of study, thus, are subjective. That way, you abandon the milliseconds and fifty centuries stuff. Of course, the experimental study of physics takes time span into consideration in the lab in order to provide us with better understanding of events.
My humble advice mimicks the historical response to your question: if you ever wish to bend time around your consciousness, you must first wrap your mind around how time works within physics.

Answer 8

Time is an artificial dimension created and perceived in a way that is possible to comprehend by the human brain. It is relative to the continuum of space and time. Although time is artificial made by humanity to understand the infinity, past present and future is natural and is not changeable in any way except through theories and such. Now im just mouthing off...

~Neil

Answer 9

Time is a series of events in which space changes.
Time travels in a straight line and in one direction.
When time flowed, the Big Bang started.

Answer 10

Time is a number formed by you when you , or your instrument (clock) count changes. Thus it's abstract (a number in your mind), and based on physical processes.