What is "time"? Is it real, or a concept of humans? Could there be no time?

Question

As far as we know, is time present in all known universes? And if time is real, where does it go to when we say "time goes by?" Is there a certain location for it or for "them" ( the events, the minutes, the hours, etc) ?

Answer 1

I had wondered about this myself. There is an interesting book on the subject, called "The Arrow of Time" ( sorry I can't recall the author). The argument has to do with the second law of thermodynamics, i.e. that the increasing entropy is a function of time. Time is seen as a vector that can't be inversed, so that even when we retrace our steps on the same line, it will be different, because time will have passed (our body has aged, the molekules on the path will be in a different order, etc)

I'm not too sure whether I believe it, but so far it has been the most persuasive argument I've come across.

You can't really deny that there is something like time, your own body proves it, time and again,;-)

Where it goes? I myself imagine hours and days like milestones on the way, you still see them from a distance and more or less distorted by it, but you can not go back to them once you have passed.

Answer 2

I'm sure you'll get a hundred different answers, but the only correct one is that time is NOT a NATURAL feature of the universe. Time is simply a concept developed and used by sentient beings like us to separate events into 'past,' 'present,' and 'future.' If there were no thinking beings anywhere in the entire universe there would be no such thing as time.



Einstein showed us that time is strictly relative. It is not absolute, like there's some Cosmic Master Clock that ticks off the correct time for the entire universe. Not just theory either but proven time and time again by carefully controlled and precise experiments.



One very simple example shows that time is relative and not absolute :: It's now 3:45 PM on the west coast. In New York it's 6:45 PM. Which time is the correct time?

Answer 3

Time came into being with space, the two can't be separated. Saying you were on the corner of Main and Elm is only specific if you give a time. The time you give will be read off from a watch dial and a calendar, all of which are man made, but the real time is something you have no control over and you can never return to that spot at any time, man made or real. The motion of the universe continued and the only way you can get back to that spot in real time is to cause the reversal of the movement of the universe to bring time and space back to the exact coordinates. No two objects can occupy the same space at the same time.

Answer 4

There have been a couple good answers to this question already and many bad ones. I thought I'd throw my answer in there though.



Time exists. Even many of the people who have said time does not exist indirectly assume it exists. Yes, Einstein's theory of spacetime says that time and space, together, travel in two directions, like all dimensions, however, TIME still exists, it's just not (hypothetically) only going in one direction. Yes time may be relative, as proven with particles decaying longer in a particle accelerator than at rest (i.e. time slowing down), but then again, many other forms of measurement can be considered relative, such as distance when traveling close to the speed of light (your speed changes the distance to wherever you're traveling).



Another answer I didn't like is that time somehow exists through clocks. That's not really true, and it's misleading, because clocks are obviously man-made. TIME is not what's on your clock, however. Clocks merely perform an action at a regular interval (such as clicking the second hand at a regular interval, which clicks the minute hand 1/60th of the way towards the next notch of a minute and which clicks the hour hand 1/3600th towards the next hour number).



These terms, the terms that apply to clocks, "seconds" and "hours" and "minutes," "days" "years" "centuries" "millenniums" are all man-made terms and measurements of artificial durations of TIME. But they are measurements of something that exists.



Everything takes time. Every single event in this universe has a start and an end, and some duration of TIME in between. Nothing happens instantaneously. Time may be relative, but like I've said, so are other things that humans measure, such as distances, lengths, widths, etc.



Time does not go anywhere after it passes. It's a difficult concept to visualize, the fourth dimension, also known as spacetime. We humans can only experience life in the third dimension, and it is difficult for our brain to comprehend a concept it, well, cannot comprehend. In essence, if someone could see in the fourth dimension, they would see everything like it is in the present, like we see now, except with every single object, person, perhaps even down to every molecule and atom, the person would see everywhere it has been in the past and everywhere it will be in the future. Tough to think about, obviously, but once you can, you will realize that time does not "go anywhere," that spacetime that existed in the past still exists in the fourth dimension, and spacetime that is in the future does not get "created" but simply moves closer to the present, since it has always existed.



I hope that helps you understand your question a bit better. It's a very interesting question and one that promotes contemplation of some very difficult ideas, but it's a fun one to explore.

Answer 5

Of course, infinity, in terms of time, is not a specific time. It means that there is no limit to how long something might exist. We have some ideas about how long our universe might continue to exist that are dependent on such things as how much mass is in the universe, and so forth. We are not yet in a position to make any clear assessments as to an 'outcome' but there are realistic possible conditions under which we would expect that the universe simply continues to expand 'forever', and in that sense we would say that it will last infinitely long.

Answer 6

Time is Earth. Time is when humans began to walk the Earth. Time was used as a navigational device (to map the placement of the stars). Time will end when the Earth ends. It is only relevant to Earth. There really is not such a thing as time. It only is the measurement of the rotation of the Earth itself and its orbit around the sun. Time does not exist once you exit the Earth's atmosphere. Every planet in the solar system rotates at a different speed and orbits the sun at different speeds as well-therefore every planet in every solar system, in every galaxy has its own special measure of the present-time. Space has no time - it is just that -space. Time travel wont work by how fast we can go-but by passing through condensed layers , or "folding" the layers of the universe so that it would actually be traveling to us.For example-when you go camping and you roll everything up as tight as you can so all your stuff will fit in your backpack.If the universe could be condensed, it would be alot easier to skip to another place and time without having to go so fast.

Answer 7

invented by humans so they would know when to go to lunch. It was created so there would be a measurement of the passing days, weeks, months and years. This measurement was broken down as far as minutes originally the later they develped the means to break it down to seconds then parts of seconds. It is a standard to measure the revolutions of this planet around the Sun. Pluto's years are much longer than earths yet its days could be shorter. The concept of time changes throughout the universe (watch Startrek for the Star Dates of the Universe)

Answer 8

note

a nonspatial continuum. We tend to measure it using clocks, but there certainly are a lot of clocks - the most accepted being the measurement of a particular pulsing star



However there is Einstein's famous saying that there is no such thing as the past, there is no such thing as the present and there is no such thing as the future - that these concepts are just the persistent error of human thinking. That time really is just one big blob. IF our eyes could see 4 dimentionally, we could see all of the past and the future since it all exists right now!



As a matter of fact: anyone who has ever been in the room you are in now or who will ever be in the room are in the room right now. Curious, but true



Don't believe your eyes or your logic! "The world is stranger than it seems; it is stranger than you can even conceive"



But, our measurement of time is relative. It is dependent on our speed and how close we are to a mass. Time goes slower the closer you are to a mass and the faster you are traveling. For instance, time does not pass for a photon moving through a vacume. A photon (partical of light) which left a star may have taken 4 billion light years (to us) to get to earth, for the photon NO time has passed.



Here is another interesting note, related to time. Light travels at approx. 186,000 miles per second regardless of your speed. If you are going 100,000 miles per second light is still traveling away from you at 186,000 mps. If you slow down to 50,000 mps is still traveling away from you at 186,000 mps. If you speed up to 186,000 mps, light is still traveling away from you at 186,000 mps. This is how odd our world is.

Answer 9

Regardless of what you call it, the thing exists. We call it time. You can say it does not exist, but that will not change the nature of the universe.



Time can be thought of, by analogy, as an extra dimension. Everything moves forward in time (though objects traveling near the speed of light move slower in time than ordinary objects). It's analogous to a ball rolling across the floor. The ball exists on one side of the room, but it also exists (later) on the other side of the room.



Likewise, you exist now, but you also exist tomorrow. The only difference is that while we can freely control our movement in space, we are bound to travel through time at the same rate (unless approaching the speed of light, in which case time slows down). Time is just a dimension we can't move freely in.

Answer 10

Time is real. Have you ever watched star trek or astronomy related programs on television? If you did you would notice that they use the term space time?



I read an article a w hile back about a university student proposing the idea that there was no time. The scientific community dismissed it saying that (paraphrase) " it suggested the student had a severe lack of understanding of physics.



Im no scientist but ill try my best to answer the second parts of your question?



1.) I think we only know of one univers

2.) I guess it goes from Present to Past( does that make sense)

3.) Dunno, but i know you can slow it down by going very fast



Hope that helps!!

Answer 11

As far as we know Time is. Time is measured by the passing of events.



However, remember the Matrix movie. What if, This is a big 'What if' (kinda like the theory of evolution, you know, a big bang occurred and then a single cell life just happened by chance of properly proportioned chemical elements and a haphazard energetic input to influence the normally adverse second law of thermodynamics and then we propigated from it.), What if, we are not actually real beings but spiritual beings in a simulator. Caused to experience a real world (simulated by inputs (?- form of inputs still TBD)) and while we still interact by the measure of our outputs becoming inputs to our friends and associates.) Time exist solely for the purpose of the simulation and we are its products and the tool for its continuance. The question about when the tree fell in the forest was sound made becomes a true issue. Because in a simulation the lonely tree never really falls. Just the next time someone enters the forrest they just see it fallen. To continue that, no tree would ever fall. In the simulation the real world does not really exist. In a simulated world, what is a universe? What is inifinite? Just a little further than you've experienced! ( Just a calculated parameter?).



Now, except for the extreme case of being in a simulated world, Time exist to coordinate the passing of events. For instance. If I drop a ball, it bounces on the floor and then I can catch it on the rebound. Without time, I could drop the ball and catch it on the rebound and it still bounce on the floor (later?).



In a simulated world, our simulations can be independent. What you are experiencing with all your collected memories could be the you very first real simulated experience with all fake memories. You like that? All your memories are just prepositioned inputs (a setup routine?). And we go on from there.



The bottom line, in our world as we know it, time exist and is our chains never to be broken. Time is an independent variable. (by the way, you cannot bend an independent variable like some theorize) But you can remap the dependant variables about it. Allowing this critical independent variable to be bent, etc. speaks for the existance of God and destroys the concept of evolution. But all this is just postulation. Even the big bang / evolution 'theories' does not justify theory status yet.



And then again, there is the "Matrix Theory".

Answer 12

Time is a concept of humans. Our time has no true meaning to anything other than what is around us. We developed time, therefore it is not perfect or complete. I agree that to a certain degree time is an illusion. Buddhists believe the same thing, so you might want to read up on the religion.

Answer 13

I believe that time is a concept to humans. Space just "is", we just travel through it. Check out some astrophysics articles, this gets really deep!

Answer 14

i do believe that time exits because if it didn't nothing would start and nothing would end...time...i believe time is more of a cycle so the cliche of "time goes by" would just mean that the minutes the hours are just being used up again in a never ending cycle

Answer 15

Actually time isn't real. It was created by humans. We set the hours in the day based on the patterns of the sun.

Answer 16

Time is the measurement from one event to another. How we measure time is purely up to our imagination.

Answer 17

There is only one universe...Time is real, but it is only one thing > REALITY< time has no effect on the spiritual plane, only the material plane of decay...Time is one...humans built it up to 24.

Answer 18

How stupid. So if time wasn't real, then races are fake?? And what about distance and speed, are they fake as well???? If I lined up beside of an Olympic sprinter and it took him 10 seconds to run 100 meters and it took me 20 seconds - there was no difference in when he started and when we finshed??? WTF?

Answer 19

There is time. Time is what you have wasted on Y/A. nah, just joking... :)