The Forward Arrow Of Time?

Question

Why is it the there is only one direction in time the one that we are aware of the arrow seems to move forwrd only.
And please dont say it will start to reverse when the universe collapses as I think that is nonsense, but there again who knows.
what really is time..?

Answer 1

Well for starters, there is no direction of time. There actually isnt a time either lol. It doesnt exist at all. Its just an imagination that we use to help us through our daily life. One could say, "well we have clocks and clocks measure time"
Clocks in fact do not measure time, we define time by what clocks measure.
The physical world goes on with or without the idea of time. It doesnt exist, but it sure does make our lives easier.
Time is not a NATURAL feature of the universe but simply a concept invented by our species to separate events into past, present and future. There is no Cosmic Master Clock that keeps track of absolute, universal time. There is no physical "past" trailing along behind the "present," nor any physical "future" waiting up ahead for us to get there.

Answer 2

No one really knows. Certainly in the equations of modern physics, time is a "dimension", a coordinate like x-, y-, and z-coordinates and on equal ground mathematically. But what does this mean or imply physically about time? Who knows.

One issue is that many of the laws of physics don't seem to care about which direction time is moving. Changing the direction time is moving doesn't change many laws of physics (some of the more advanced quantum theories deal with situations where this isn't necessarily true). One area of physics where this isn't true is statistical physics or thermodynamics. Here there is a distinct and irreversible difference between before and after, largely embeded in the notion of entropy. One proposal about the "arrow of time" is that it points in the direction that entropy increases.

This is all well and good, but statistical physics isn't a fundamental branch of physics like gravity, relativity, or quantum theory. It is to a large degree empirical, and doesn't really address issues of fundamental physical importance such as the question of "What is time?"

So the answer is pretty much unknown.

Answer 3

Time is flowing like a river and you can't swim against the current. Personally, I don't think the universe has the room to hold a past and present, but only the now.

However, there is a thought experiment that allows time travel. You take a black hole and have it revolve around a point. If the orbit is tight enough the warping of space time will allow time travel. Of course we can't survive being that close to a black hole, and hopefully time travel isn't really possible. Poor Hitler and Jesus Christ would never have a chance.

So what is time? It is a dimension; we can describe something with time. An object exists for a finite amount of time and that describes it, along with width, length, and depth. There is no physical substance of depth; depth is only a way we see things. So time probably doesn’t have a physical substance like a time particle; it is only a viewpoint. You can’t touch or pick up the property of length or width, you can’t change the property, only the object or the way you see the property. So time is probably the same. You can slow down or speed up your perception and you can travel in time the old fashioned way; second by second. But, you can’t go backwards without changing yourself and how you are perceived.

I can take a piece of wood and reduce its length with a saw, but you can never add to its length with only a saw. I can experience time and slow it down by ignoring the passage of it, but I can’t go back in time and add that cut off piece of wood back to the original 2X4.

If time is a substance, a thing; like a membrane then you can manipulate, fold, bend, cut or go through or even leave the membrane. In that respect we could have time travel. But, that would also allow us to change the length of an object by warping space to make it bigger or smaller. Immense gravity fields or speed approaching that of light can do that, but us poor humans can’t.

Time is a frame of reference, a dimension, it is not a material or a substance; at least not as we understand matter. You can pass your hand through space time, but you can’t touch it, you only exist in it.

Answer 4

Time, being an interval between events must move from the end of the past event, which becomes history, to the beginning of the next event, which is not the future unfolding because there there is no future. Events continue to take place and recede into history. Time is always present but it has no direction, it can be dilated if mass reaches speed near that of light, the dilation occurs because events are slowed due to increased mass at these speeds.

Answer 5

Time flows or passes, pick whatever appropriate term you like, for a system's frame of reference such that the system goes from less entropy to greater entropy.

Answer 6

Time is just a tool devised by human kind to measure life

Answer 7

Time moves relative to the observer, and the rates change.

Theoretically, as you approach the speed of light, the observed universe would appear to slow. When you reached 1 c (the speed of light, approx. 300 000 km/sec), the universe would appear to have stopped.

If you then, somehow managed to achieve 1.0000000000001 c (just over the s.o.l.), you'd see the universe appear to move backwards - because you would be seeing 'old' light, as opposed to new light.

It's ALL a trick of the light. Since we are unable to observe ANYTHING other than photons (on all wavelengths), you'd see the universe moving backwards.

Time is actually nothing but a unit of measurement of the travelling of light.

Hope this helps.

Answer 8

the universe is eternal, it has always been there and always will, time only exists on earth in the human mind,

Answer 9

Time is what stops everything happening at once.

Answer 10

the definition of time is still up to debate with philosophers and scientist

the best I can do is to tell you to take a look at the wiki article on time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time

and look at this vid
http://www.tenthdimension.com/medialinks.php