Dear Poirot,

Time is one of the world's deepest mysteries.
Yet, the ability to measure time makes our
way of life possible. I suppose one way of
thinking about time is to imagine a world
without it. This timeless world would be at
a standstill. But if some kind of change took
place, that timeless world would be different
"now" than it was "before." The period - no
matter how brief - between "before," and "now"
indicates that time must have passed.
Therefore time and change are related because
the passing of time depends on changes taking place.

In the real world, changes never stop happening.
When people began to count repeating events,
they began to measure time.

Scientists think of time as a fundamental quantity
that can be measured. Other fundamental quantities
include length and mass. Albert Einstein realized
that measurements of these quantities are affected
by "relative motion," (motion between two objects).
Because of his work, time became known as the
"fourth dimension." Many physicists believe that
the apparent nonstop, forward flow of time is not a
property of the basic laws of nature. They consider
it a result of the fact that the universe is expanding
and becoming more disorganised. Some have considered
the possibility, under certain circumstances, time
might flow backwards. However experiments haven't
supported this idea.

Dear Severin,

"...but two objects can exist in the same space in different times."

Perhaps not.

Our common sense perceptualisations would see the earth proceeding in an an elliptical orbit around the sun, thus, given an annual interval it has returned to the same spot. Not so. What really has happened is the sun and earth have moved through space-time and the earth's motion around the sun would be better described as spiral through space-time, in lieu of an orbit.

Strange stuff. Quantum mechanics is even stranger. :)

Oliver

>> "...but two objects can exist in the same space in different times."

Perhaps not. <<

But we simply don't know for sure. As you say, Quantum physics is weird stuff, such as the behaviour of time and physical objects when entering a black hole in space.

I really like the idea of two objects in the same place at different times, hasn't there already been some research at a quantum level of this phenomenon?

In answer to Poirot's question, I am saying that time does exist but not necessarily in a linear fashion as we humans generally perceive it.

Houellebecq,

I watched Donnie Darko with my daughter some years ago - will have to catch up with it again.

Severin,

It seems that the dimension of time isn't the driver of the changes (as most of us tend to assume) - but merely our way of describing and measuring the changes that matter goes through as it moves from one state to another.

C.J.,

Thanks for reminding of Hawking's book. I have a copy around here...somewhere. I'm with Severin - off to hunt it down.

Foxy and Squeers,

Thanks for that - fascinating subject, isn't it.

Hello Severin,

"...I really like the idea of two objects in the same place at different times, hasn't there already been some research at a quantum level of this phenomenon?"

Maybe you are thinking of the co-existence of two (or more) states in superposition as described in QM. Here, observation in our universe makes one state real in our universe. The question here is what denotes an observers a human, a satient being, a microbe or the environment. If say a human, the evolved universe, in a sense, did not exist, until it was observed by a human: That is too much for my mere primate brain to handle.

Back to Einstein. Space and time are intertwined.

Hi Foxy,

Good post.

Time is just a way of preventing everything from happening at once.

Figure that out and the rest should just fall into place.