Time - does it exist?

quote:

Time - does it exist?

Time - does it exist?

Not when your 2-1 down with a few minutes to go and the ref's Clive Thomas.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
Suggestion is (my interpretation again) that time moves backwards and forwards

"same sh*t, same day"!

As the great Steve Miller once said: Time keeps on slipping in to the future

This is where your brain gets tied in knots - Einstein's relativity did hint that time may go in two directions since all movement is considered a vector in the 4 dimensional spacetime continuum. Another real brain teaser is that there is no concept of siultaneous events - things that appear to happen at the same instant of time to ovservers in one context (eg a spaceship traveling very, very fast) will appear to happen at different times to an ovserver who is "standing still" relative to that ship.

Time is very weird and I've come to the conclusion that I can only consider the cosmic all after at least three pints, and five preferably.

There is already evidence in some experiments that time can run backwards via the observations of events related to quantum entanglement of quarks...now there is another mind-blowing field of study.

Allan
... now go and have those three pints...

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... now go and have those three pints...

i thought you had already sunk the first three........

If not, then I must, and I haven't started yet

Cheers

Don

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Time - does it exist?

I'll tell you later.

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There is already evidence in some experiments that time can run backwards via the observations of events related to quantum entanglement of quarks...

Those pesky quarks of course would say it is our continuum that is running backwards.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:

quote:

... now go and have those three pints...

i thought you had already sunk the first three........

If not, then I must, and I haven't started yet

Cheers

Don

hic, hic

Now go back and have them again.

quote:

I've come to the conclusion that I can only consider the cosmic all after at least three pints, and five preferably.

Or a couple of Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters served at Quarks bar. Served today which was yesterdays tomorrow of course.

!!ereh gnorw si gnihtemos - tiaW !struh daeh yM .gnisufnoc YREV si cipot sihT

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!!ereh gnorw si gnihtemos - tiaW !struh daeh yM .gnisufnoc YREV si cipot sihT

You need time to look in the mirror tomorrow, after which yesterday will enventually turn out fine.

Cheers

Don

quote:

What, then, is time? If no one ask of me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks, I know not. Yet I say with confidence, that I know that if nothing passed away, there would not be past time; and if nothing were coming, there would not be future time; and if nothing were, there would not be present time. Those two times, therefore, past and future, how are they, when even the past now is not; and the future is not as yet? But should the present be always present, and should it not pass into time past, time truly it could not be, but eternity. If, then, time present -- if it be time -- only comes into existence because it passes into time past, how do we say that even this is, whose cause of being is that it shall not be -- namely, so that we cannot truly say that time is, unless because it tends not to be?

Augustine - Confessions, Book XI

Does that answer your question?!
Nigel

12.55.

Time is what stops everything happening at once.
Matt.

Yes; time is the distance between events.

"and then one day you find ten years have got behind you, no-one told you when to run - you missed the starting gun."

Time is an illusion; lunch time doubly so - Douglas Adams

Time flies like an arrow.

Fruit flies like a banana.

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Fruit flies like a banana.

I thought they prefered plums....

Cheers

Don

Is time continuous, or discrete?
and what about sound? natural sound, that is, not yer modern digital stuff. Is sound continuous, or discrete?

Do these questions look as if they were written by someone as thick as two short Planks?

Cheers

Don

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
Is time continuous, or discrete?
and what about sound? natural sound, that is, not yer modern digital stuff. Is sound continuous, or discrete?

Do these questions look as if they were written by someone as thick as two short Planks?

Cheers

Don

time is continuous. this is easily proven. for any unit of time you can subdivide it, and then subdivide the result ad infinitium.

analog sound is continuous for the same reason.
digital sound is by definition discreet, it's limit being defined by word length in computer geek terms.

that's the fundamental problem with digital sound - the translation from digital to analog is a translation from a discreet system into a continuous system. it works much better going the other way.

thankfully, hearing is discreet. the little sound receptors in your ear only move when the sound pressure level changes due to a difference in loudness or frequency. when they move an electrical charge is sent to your brain. your brain fills in the blanks between these signals :-)

as far as "Time - does it exist?" there is a simple test that proves it does exist. ask yourself that question on monday morning, just after you get to work. the answer will come to you with a vengeance :-)

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time is continuous. this is easily proven. for any unit of time you can subdivide it, and then subdivide the result ad infinitium

No, this only applies to your perception of a construct you call time.

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time is continuous. this is easily proven. for any unit of time you can subdivide it, and then subdivide the result ad infinitium.

analog sound is continuous for the same reason.

i think that well before you get down to anything like Plank dimensions, both time and sound can be shown to be generated/transmitted in discrete packages.

Made me begin to think that with their next generation of cd player, Naim might get it to sound better than a decent Linn t/t (only joking!)

cheers

Don

"Time is represented through change, such as the circular motion of the moon around the earth. The passing of time is indeed closely connected to the concept of space.

According to the general theory of relativity, space, or the universe, emerged in the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago. Before that, all matter was packed into an extremely tiny dot. That dot also contained the matter that later came to be the sun, the earth and the moon – the heavenly bodies that tell us about the passing of time.

Before the Big Bang, there was no space or time.

“In the theory of relativity, the concept of time begins with the Big Bang the same way as parallels of latitude begin at the North Pole. You cannot go further north than the North Pole,” says Kari Enqvist, Professor of Cosmology.

One of the most peculiar qualities of time is the fact that it is measured by motion and it also becomes evident through motion.

According to the general theory of relativity, the development of space may result in the collapse of the universe. All matter would shrink into a tiny dot again, which would end the concept of time as we know it.

“Latest observations, however, do not support the idea of collapse, rather inter-galactic distances grow at a rapid pace,” Enqvist says.

If you want to know more about the topic, visit Kari Enqvist’s website at http://www.physics.helsinki.fi/~enqvist/."