If time were to speed up or slow down, or even go backwards, isn't it true that no one would notice?

Answer 1

That's a good question. If time were to "change its speed" for EVERYBODY, then indeed no one would notice. And since there would be no way to detect such a phenomenon, then for all practical purposes you could say that it didn't actually "happen."

But if time were to go at one rate for person "A" and a _different_ rate for person "B", that would be a different matter. In that case, the two people would notice that something was weird--that their two "clocks" (use any suitable clock you like) are no longer both "ticking" at the same rate. So in that case you could notice that somebody ELSE's time frame had slowed down.

As you may know, the slowing-down of time is actually predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity, and has been confirmed experimentally. The best "real-world" example is GPS navigation satellites. Their speed and their altitude cause them to experience time at a slightly different rate than we do on the ground, according to the theory of relativity. As a consequence, their on-board clocks need to be adjusted in order to compensate. If that adjustment were not made, their navigation signals would be off by many miles. The fact that GPS works is a good confirmation of the "time dilation" effect.

Answer 2

NO!
Time cannot be changed ( rewound, speeded up, slowed down, erased, etc..), because time as we measure it is based on the movements of celestial bodies or our solar system, including that of our own rotation on our axis and how much of that daily calculted time of 24 hours ( each hour compose of 60 minutes and each minute compose of 60 seconds ).
Well you see, time just measures events that happen, these events cannot be re-done, because of the phisics of a physical happening.
You can rewind all the clocks that excist, yet things will continue to unfold and happen, our time keeping has nothing to do with the rest of the events that happen else where.
Traveling faster then the speed of light does not take you back in time, it only gets you faster to the place you want to go.
Just don't crash when you do....

Answer 3

Since you siad "if," I'll play along... ignoring physics.
I think that whether or not people would notice all depends on the rate of change. Just like if you accelerate a car at 1 mph every day, no one inside (without looking outside the car ... or at the clock, in your example) would notice. Same thing with a Frog in boiling water... turn the heat up too fast and he will notice and jump out... turn it up gradually and he'll die before he realizes it's too hot.

Answer 4

Time slows down every Monday - Friday between 9am and 5pm weekly. And I notice!

Answer 5

Correct except that it can't go backwards. If it did some quantum symmetries would be violated and the universe would instantly decay

Answer 6

Time can only appear to alter, it is as steady as time.