could time exist if space ceased to exist?

Answer 1

Yup, but no-one will be around to measure until it came back and the universe was re-created and some crackpot inventor in the future found out that 15 million largs past the quark that the universe was created. They wouldn't know what was before ie us and also the correct unit of time was in fact hours and minutes and not largs and quarks.

Answer 2

Think of it this way:
Width is one dimension (A)
Length is another (B)
Height is another one (C)
And Time is the fourth, that covers all the first three (D):

Now, A is a single line, no height, no width. AxB would give you a flat shape and the area inside it. AxBxC would give you a 3 dimensional shape and its volume, such as a cube or a pyramid. Now, add time (D) and you have an object that has, wait for it, Spatio-temporal continuity AxBxCxD. That means it exists as height, width, length and (for a certain amount) an object of time.

Now, you're asking if time could exist without space, well, try existing in time if you couldn't exist in space... pretty difficult i'd say. Time works THROUGH all other dimensions, meaning without space, time could not be generated and we wouldn't have anything with which to connect it. To just answer 'No' might be haphazard, but I can't see it happening myself.

Answer 3

No. Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, generally accepted as scientific fact, tells us that space and time are interwoven - altering space alters time. Hence time came into existence at the Big Bang and would cease to exist if space were to cease to exist.

Answer 4

dell and Philip H gave you the right answer within a relativistic vision.

There is one more, newer, cutting edge vision, which is still under development and considers information too.

According with that vision:
- it's matter which give the physical space a sense
- information + information <=> matter
- matter + information => time
- time + matter <=> energy

If space ceases to exist, then it will make no sense; so matter has to disappear too - since it's matter what gives sense to the physical space. No matter is no time and no time is no energy.

The only thing that could remain is the information; what information?

My guess is "there was a wonderful Universe out there!". When? My guess is "no one remembers"

Answer 5

del gave a good mathematical answer.
Now I'll try to inject a visual image to add a "mechanical" or physical perspective.
There are four facets to our physical universe and all four are essential to physical universes as we understand them
They are time, matter, energy and space.
As you know, energy and matter can be considered to be interchangeable, that is, energy can be used to create matter and matter can be converted into energy.
Energy can be used to do work, or move matter.
Without space, where would the matter move to?

Time is part of the physical universe and without a physical universe, time doesn't exist.
It is simply a fact of persistence. That is, without time, physical particles could not persist.
Time exists because of that persisting, but MOTION gives time its meaning. We measure time by gaging motion over distance.
Without space, there is no motion.
Without energy, there can be no motion,
Without time there can be no motion.
Without matter there would be nothing to move.
Take away ANY single cornerstone of the universe and the entire universe ceases to exist.

Answer 6

If space ceased to exist than earth would cease to exist and humans would not exist either. Therefore, time would not be necessary if space was not in existance.

Answer 7

No, time and matter/energy are inextricably linked.
E=MC2
Energy = Matter * (speed of Light)2
therefore energy/matter = speed of light squared
therefore the square root of energy divided by matter = speed of light
speed is defined as distance over time,
If there was no time
There would be speed of light so the constant in E=MC2 would be zero
E would thus equal zero as would matter
so no time, no matter, no energy either.

Answer 8

not a linear time could exist... by the way, neither the space, nor the time exists!!!

Answer 9

No. You cannot have time without matter or vice versa. Time is a measurement of matter. No matter, nothing to measure, ergo no time.

Answer 10

There is no time in space..Time is a human creation