what is time exactlly?

Question

if you think about it it dosnt seem to be much of anything except a concept. measuring it is even impossible because it changes based on where and how fast youre going or your gravitational pull. of course on earth we can measure it because it's relativly predictable here but we are just a tiny speck in the whole scheme of things so dont give me hours and minutes.

Answer 1

Time is that which keeps everything from happening all at once.

Answer 2

Time is an abstract concept...you are absolutely right.



In a sense, time is the force in the universe that always "pushes" us forward...think about that, time only flows in one direction (hence why I argue it's incorrect to think of it as the 4th dimension).



In some sense time and distance are the same thing. If you accept that the speed of light is known, then you can say that I "know" the distance and then can therefore measure the time (with light), or you can say I know the time and then use light to measure the distance.



Edit:



Incidentally the most accurate clocks are based on atomic phenomenon...that is we KNOW how long it takes an atom to decay from a certain state (through quantum mechanics), then we can measure how many of these transitions happen and that's how the atomic clocks work.



Sure enough, like you stated it turns out that if you take two of those clocks, one on Earth and one on a satellite they will differ (although slightly) due to relativity.

Answer 3

Wikipedia has this to say under the article 'Caesium':



Since 1967, the International System of Measurements has based its unit of time, the second, on the properties of caesium. The International System of Units (SI) defines the second as 9,192,631,770 cycles of the radiation, which corresponds to the transition between two hyperfine energy levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.[60] The 13th General Conference on Weights and Measures of 1967 defined a second as: "the duration of 9,192,631,770 cycles of microwave light absorbed or emitted by the hyperfine transition of caesium-133 atoms in their ground state undisturbed by external fields".



Although this 'amount of time' may vary some in different spots in the universe, this is a fairly well-defined standard that they're using. In other words, at this point, they've kind of taken 'rotation of the earth' out of it, and put a standard atomic setup to it. I think it's presumed that this would stay basically the same no matter where in space you are.

Answer 4

time is the 4th dimension and is an integral part of the "space-time" continuum which makes up our universe. Only philosophers and dilettantes see it as an abstract, To a physicist it is as concrete as length and width and depth, the first three dimensions. Time is a necessary part of physical reality, without it there can be no motion or movement... It is measurable, testable, proof of its existance can be shown in many ways and its existence is vital.



Our perception of it may vary, but the universe which relies on it, couldnt care less if or how we measure it and divide it up. It is NOT based on our perception, it has an objective reality.

Answer 5

the reason why we feel the effects of time but can't manipulate it is because it's simply a higher dimension in which our universe exists, so our whole universe is governed by it. Like if you drop a sheet of paper from really high up and let it fall, you can imagine the paper as a 2D universe and time as the vertical distance the paper is traveling, or a 3rd dimension. In the 2nd Dimension you can't interact with time, but as the paper moves through the 3rd dimension things randomly change in your 2D sheet of paper. If you were to step into the 4th dimension (back to our world now) you would be able to see your entire life as one continuous image, all at once. However you cannot imagine this because your brain is designed to function in the 3D world

Answer 6

Which meaning of time are you referring to? Or do you think there is only one? ROFL

time - a label for an event (a point in 4D space-time) 12 noon

time - a measure of the duration of an event I can hold my breath for 3 minutes

time - a irreversible process of change and entropy increase

Answer 7

Apart from its science aspects (I wouldn't talk on it), time is one of the human perceptions. If man had no memory, he wouldn't learn and adapt, very necessary for his survival. Hence evolution provided 'memory' in his brain. What is stored in it is the 'past'. What he is experiencing now is 'present'. And his extrapolation based on his past actions and judgement is 'future', yet to unravel. This three-way partition (J Krishnamurti elucidate it) enables him to know or sense time &process it mentally. He is incapable of two things in the realm of time. Encompass it in a small span, but he needs to have it segmented into intervals. The second is his inability to 'know things in advance'. If he had this ability he would treasure it beyond anything else. Contrary to the fond yearnings expressed here (Y!A) he can't go back in past.

I recall a story from Upanishads (of India). Sri Krshna had an argument with 'Narada', the wandering celestial sage poking his nose in every affair on the way. Narada asked of Krshna about time. 'What is time? You as God know it' he demanded. They were walking on a river bank. Krshna told him to take a bath (it is customary to be extra pure before an auspicious event) to listen to what he had to say. When Narada immersed in to the flowing stream (of time?), he instantly last consciousness. Then he felt he died. And he was born again as a female child of a great king. The child grew up into a beautiful dame. The king got his daughter married off. She led a family life to fullness. Bore sixty children. And died, nothing spectacular about it all. Then Narada lifted himself from water, recalling this other consciousness, as if a dream. Then he told it all to Krshna to the last detail and said why was he sitting on the river bank for a full span of a human life lasting seven or eight decades.Krshna said, 'No. I was sitting here waiting for you to come out of water, for a few moments. It is not seven, eight decades that has elapsed'. Narada could get his answer of 'What is time?'. Krshna continued, 'you lived with time in the stream of time, you bore time segmented into your sixty children, who is each a year' and gave the names of the years. It has been adapted as a cycle of 60 years with it individual names (this year is 'Vikrti' ending on New Moon on April 4; the next, 'Khara' starts on 4.4.11). From ancient times 60 has its own significance - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 can divide it. When a person's horoscope is cast, it will return to the same position after 60 years for 'an instant'. It is so because of the harmonic relationship of cycles of Sun, Moon & planets. The heavy weights of almanac, Saturn has 30 year cycle & Jupiter has 12 years and the LCM is 60; that is why.

Answer 8

Time is nothing but the consequence of the fact that everything in this universe is in motion. Dat's what i think!

Answer 9

Try not going to the bathroom and you will find out about time.

Answer 10

Time is completely measurable. That is what a clock does. In fact the definition of time is "that which is measured by a clock."

Answer 11

“What is TIME? If no one asks me, I know … if someone asks me, ‘I know not.’” – St. Augustine