How do you define Time?

Jungle, why do you consider time illusory but matter, energy and space real? They are all, as Naj says of time, the construction of intelligent beings. Yet they serve us well, up to a point. They point to something in our experience even if they do not tap ultimate reality itself. Someone said earlier that "Time is something I wish didn't exist!" I say his wish is granted. BUT if we define time not as a metaphysical entity but as a central aspect of our construral of experience, like duration and change, we see how important that illusion is for our ability to navigate ourselves through life (oops! what's Life?).

Definition of Time
By the use of our senses, a person can see, hear, feel, taste and/or smell various kinds of matter (103+ elements), energy (electromagnetic spectrum, motion, heat, electricity etc.) and space, but one cannot see, hear, feel, taste and/or smell "time".

Clocks and calendars are only index marks that display the progress of the motion of Earth rotating on its axis (1°arc = 4 min X 360° = 24 hours) and the motion of Earth revolving around the Sun (1 year). "Time" is measured differently at other places in the universe based on the system of reference used. A simple example of differences in time based on the location of the Earth on its axis is "time" zones. When it's 12:00 noon EST it is only 9:00 am PST (a different time). People are so used to this that they don't think of it as being unusual.

Consider a photograph. It is a record or copy of matter in a certain arrangement position in space before it moves to another different arrangement position. That capture of a certain arrangement position of matter in the photograph makes one "think" that it stops "time" or is captured at a certain "time". Actually what really is taking place is the photograph captures matter in a certain arrangement position in space at a certain degree location of Earth's rotation on its axis. The "Time" dimension is really a parameter of the location of the movement of Earth on its axis. It is very impractical to talk about things without using "time" parameters and "time" words like before, until, when, after, hours, minutes, seconds, days, years etc. but they are really used as a convenience because explaining each individual space relationship would be too complex and too impractical to talk about and use.

Some links to "time" articles I have found interesting are as follows:

Time Equivalence

An article in Scientific American Magazine "That Mysterious Flow" by Paul Davies "September 2002".

jungle

The issue comes when we refer time to clocks. Time is something we use to describe the passage of days. I think in reality, there is just the progression of events...time cannot be traversed (time travel is not possible...one big paradox) except the way it is going now.

I agree, Thunder. No matter how we define time, we are engaged in a kind of "time travel" right "now". I can't really imagine any other kind. Einstein said that if we travel through space nearly at the speed of light and then returned to earth, we will find that people left behind will have aged much more than we have. Is that "time travel" or just differential aging during the "same" time period? I don't claim to know.

Time is a fignewton of the imagination.

Yes, it is part of the fabric of consciousness. I don't know if it is also part of the fabric of the physical world.

Perhaps I should say that (following Kant) time--like space--is part of the STRUCTURE of consciousness. That is to say, we cannot see the world without interpreting it in terms of space and time. But does that mean that the world is necessarily structured in terms of space and time/ Einstein apparently thought so. Or did he?

If you jump up into the air, you are in one of two states , you are either touching the ground or you are in the air. Where is the bit of time when you leave the ground? It seems to me you are either on it or off it. There is no in between.

Hello Jungle,

Nice link. Personally I have determined that time is real, or at least as real as life is. If life is but an illusion then so is time, but if we actually exist outside of our imagination then so does time.

Evidence that time exists is provided by the cosmic rays (gamma) that are actually observed, normally in outer space.

Einstein came up with the concept of "spacetime". This works pretty well but came up with some paradoxes of it's own, regrettably.

So I concede that "time" probably exists but I have a very poor idea as how to quantify it so that it's the same for every location.

The best that I have been able to come up with is that the "speed of light" (c) and "time" do not have a one to one relationship except by human definition. I am unhappy about this , but so far thats the best we can do.

This (IMO natch) Has a lot to do with how "Creations", Big Bangs," and Expanding Universe theories have come about, although preachers and physicists would each deny that they have a common view of reality or "Ultimate Questions"

I might point out that the more I learn the less I know. Another paradox . Good evening.

Carditel,

You need to spend a bit of time with "Quantum Mechanics". When you jump there is a time when you must enter the realm of "wave functions". At one point in time there will be an interval (about 1>10-27th/6 seconds) in which you enter the realm of wave functions and probabilities. Don't worry overmuch but basically this means that at some point you are probably on the ground and at the same point you probably aren't. And the probabilities are all we have to go with at that point. It doesn't take too long, considering the age of the universe

What you are saying then is time is a series of gaps during which we move from one bit to another. Time is not constant.

Speaking of time lines. Lets say the time line of the devine femme as wished by Jesus had occured in that favor , where would the world be today?

I've read through this entire thread and still have no idea how to go back in time to be on time for Valentine's Day with my girl.

So what good is this discussion, then?

I believe that time is a rate of change.

Ray, I would agree regarding time as duration, as the subjective sense of how fast or how slow time is moving.

THE SECOND BOOK OF ESDRAS says:

"The interval will be no bigger than that between Abraham and Abraham"

Perhaps time is a circle where the end and the beginning are fused together seamlessly.

Wouldn't that be nice?...

maybe our reality is like the one in the matrix where we are trapped in our little meaningless lives scampering about with seeming free will, only to die and be reborn to scamper about in the same pattern as before and so on.

Wouldn't that be horrible?

That we do not in any real way understand time, while perilously hurling through it, leaves us at the mercy of a truth we are blind to see.

I'm hoping that time is a circle and that we are pulsing through the circle forever and ever with the ability to make change from one pulse to the next in order that we once might find perfection.

Further, I am hoping that "ever" is one time through the loop and that amen is the end where we are freed from this prison & able2know all things.

...and that we are able to come back into the circle or a similar circle if we get bored of being like God.

Also would like to win lotto 6 49 and am writing it here just incase someone out there is able to grant wishes.

Carditel,

Please, I am not saying anything for sure. Nobody else has been able to come up with a satisfactory definition nor can anyone say what it is. The best I can do is say that time seems to have something to do with the speed of light but I suspect that that may just another definition that doesn't really get to the crux of the matter.

But if one finds that the speed of light and the speed of time are the same (which in some cases they seem to be) then we are confronted with the famous "Twins Paradox" amongst others.

Personally I kind of think that time and relativity (both special and general) are linked in some sort of fashion but I have not had that link explained to my satisfaction.

Enneybuddy willing to try Again

v=d/t

so t=d/v meaning that time is basically the distance covered by a unit of velocity. Time is the rate of change then.

Yeah Ray, Time is the rate of change, or our subjective impression of it. But our perceptions of time influence the colors we see, the size of our universe, and our personal relations.

So the rate of change relative to what is really the question. I'd love to have an answer

The further away you are from somthing that your looking at the further back in time you can see..

What if we set the frame of reference to infinity? Or to something nearly not moving?