is time infinite?

Question

if time is infinite,did it exist before the big bang!
which is theoretical,and will it end when the universe stops expanding?

Answer 1

Depends on the model of the universe you prefer. In a closed finite univers space-time has finite dimensions, if the univers is expanding then the extent of those dimensions is expanding, so time is getting longer. If the universe expands forever then time expands to be infinite. However if the limit of the expansion is fine so is time.

Answer 2

Time is not a 'thing' in itself - just like measurements are not.
If you say, 'I have a millimetre' that makes no sense on its own. People would ask 'A millimetre of what?'.
You can have an infinite amount of millimetres, as long as you have enough of what the millimetres are of.
The same goes for time. You can have an infinite amount of seconds, so long as you have enough of what those seconds are of.
As to the second part of your question, that depends on personal belief. If you believe the scientific version, you'll believe that the Universe was already in existance in a sense, at the time of the big bang. All the tiny atoms were sucked together so tightly that they exploded, causing the Universe we know now to spread out from that point in the centre of nothingness. Surely time has always been around, ticking away before this happened.
It's all theoretical in truth, and is more philosophy than hard facts. When the Universe stops expanding, nobody knows exactly what will happen. Time may end for us, but time will never end itself.

Answer 3

First we have to be aware that time as we know it, is used as a measurement to gauge things that happen in our lives. But in the realms of the universe the anomaly known as time becomes more complicated.
Time appears to slow down due to the effects of gravity, the more dense and massive an object becomes the slower time travels until gravity becomes so strong that light cannot escape,(at this point the object becomes a black hole). When gravity becomes this strong at this moment time ceases to exist.
So in the depths of the big bang where all matter existed in the so called beginning, time did not exist. But before the big bang assuming there was a lesser abundance of matter then there most definitely was time on the other side of the big bang.But on this side of the big bang towards the end of the universe around 98 to the power of 10 years, when all mass has decayed then time will carry on for infinite years until some other mass acts on time again.

Answer 4

Infinite is a double-edged sword. In others words, time might be infinite into the future or infinite into the past, or both. If time is infinite into the past, then it would have preceded the big bang. The notion of the big bang and the expansion of the universe seem to be irrelevant to your question, since big bang theory does not relate at all to the beginning of the universe, but only the beginning of space-time. Many people confuse this with the beginning of the universe, with no scientific backing to support such a conclusion.

Answer 5

No, time is not infinite, according to our current understanding of the universe. Time and space are the same thing, they are just perceived differently. If space had a start (the big bang) then so must time.

Also time doesn't have a definate arrow or direction of flow, the direction of flow we perceive is just one possible flow and scientists have recorded particles travelling the opposite direction. For these particles the big bang (or start) comes at the end.

Something with both a beginning and an end cannot be considered infinite.

Answer 6

Simply put, we don't know. A lot depends on which scientific model actually works. If general relativity is true, then time is definitely not infinite in the past, but it may be in the future. In essence, time began at the Big Bang. If the universe never re-contracts (which looks like it's the case), then it will be infinite in the future.

On the other hand, several attempts which try to merge general relativity and quantum mechanics allow for the possibility that there was another universe before ours that contracted to give the material for ours. In that case, time will be infinite in the past also. At this point we simply don't have enough solid evidence to decide which of our models is correct.

Answer 7

Nothing can be infinite and have a boundary, as far I can see.

Why would time stop if the universe stopped expanding, at least until a big crunch, and the ending of the universe.

The word 'before' the big band does not make sense if time started at the big bang. Maybe there are dimensions outside our universe and something happen in those dimensions which caused our universe to happen, but Its hard to conceive of how those dimensions relate to time as we know it. Perhaps one universe spouts from another and each universe has its own time dimension, but all those time dimensions are not connected.

Answer 8

Your question implies that you may believe the Big Bang theory. If so then it is widely held by the majority of its proponents that time it self began with the Big Bang.

If the Big Crunch (which is the reverse of the Big Bang) occurs then it follows than time itself will cease. Something which has a both a definite beginning and a definite end is not infinite.

So time is probably not infinite.

Answer 9

According to Einstein, space and time cannot be separated. Without space you cannot have time and vice-versa. Therefore, if the big bang theory is correct, time started at the big bang and it will continue until the universe comes to an end in a big crunch (if this is to be the fate of the universe - it all depends on whether there is enough mass in the universe for gravity to pull it all back together again). It must also be remembered that time is relative and not absolute. It all depends on how you are moving relative to something else. For someone moving at a high proportion of the speed of light, the passage of time will appear to be less than someone who is relatively stationary.

Answer 10

Yes it is. Anyone who believes that the "Big Bang" was really the start of anything is being stupid or naive.

All you need is to ask what happened before the big bang to see the hole in that theory. (OK, I've just read some of the answers above, and clearly not everyone sees the hole in the theory that the big bang was really the start of anything!! Can I ask these people though...you say that the potential existed before the big bang....how long did this potential wait to become real then? When did it know it was the right time, since you seem to suggest that time did not exist which makes it rather tricky to suddenly insert yourself INTO time...what the hell are you guys thinking!!)

Time passes even if no-one is around to measure it OR any matter around to change under it's influence.

Best not to try and understand the concept though. My head starts to spin when I really picture the reality of what INFINITY means! I think it is the problem scientist with little intuition have imagining how infinity must work that has led to all this rubbish about time reversing as we head toward the big crunch. The entropy laws (which lead to this suggestion) are hardly watertight proofs when taken to the extremes of the existence of the universe!!

EDIT: Why is it that people can't accept that time is NOT a dimension. Just because it helps your maths does not make it real. If your definition of TIME is based on humans then of course time is finite, but humans didn't invent time! We just invented different ways of measuring it. It is these measurements that are affected by time dliation. Time itself is an absolute which does not require man or matter to exist...only to be measured.