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Time
How Do You Understand It?

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Time

yaysandwiches
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Posted 02/16/08 - 01:32 PM: Subject: Time	#1
I'd like for you guys to give me a new perspective on the way I understand time. My perspective so far: Time is a man-made measurement of physical motion. Stopping time would mean for the earth to stop rotating around the sun as well as for all movements in the universe to stop.

Kreius
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Posted 02/16/08 - 01:44 PM:	#2
Your definition of time is closer to the definition of kinetic energy. Time is closer to the measurement of change, I think. Heh.
"Challenge your professors, even when you agree with them." -Herr Iosity

yaysandwiches
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Posted 02/16/08 - 02:16 PM:	#3
Hm, well when I say motion I also mean change. Because there is no motion without change. Change is motion, change is movement, right?

Kwalish Kid
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Posted 02/16/08 - 02:37 PM:	#4
yaysandwiches wrote: I'd like for you guys to give me a new perspective on the way I understand time. My perspective so far: Time is a man-made measurement of physical motion. Stopping time would mean for the earth to stop rotating around the sun as well as for all movements in the universe to stop. In what sense could said movements be said to be stopped?
"Scientific truth is always paradox, if judged by everyday experience, which catches only the delusive nature of things." - KM, V, P and P "A fishnet is made up of a lot more holes than strings, but you can't therefore argue that the net doesn't exist. Just ask the fish." - Jeffrey Kluger "…Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people." -Ben Stein [This is included for the irony.]

Kreius
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Posted 02/16/08 - 03:29 PM:	#5
yaysandwiches wrote: Hm, well when I say motion I also mean change. Because there is no motion without change. Change is motion, change is movement, right? Yeah, but I think the definition of 'change' in this case is one of those super technical ones. Like the definition of 'information' in regard to Black Holes and such. Although, since not all change is kinetic, my definition would be better since it's a bit broader.
"Challenge your professors, even when you agree with them." -Herr Iosity

Gulnara
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Posted 02/16/08 - 07:04 PM:	#6
The Universe exists because of the movement or change. Even if the matter moves at speeds that make time very slow, the other part of it moves extremely slow to make time very fast. It is impossible for the matter to completely stop, I think, because it never reaches that harmonious, balanced stage, since the Universe is dual. The Universe is made up of opposites. Light-dark, fast-slow, big-small, hot-cold, etc. Time is a manifestation of a repetitious change, where to a human mind the differences in repetitions are miniscule or unnoticeable. Human mind became capable of monitoring this sorts of manifestations. Farther, the time measuring tools helped people to be more precise in coordinating their actions, studying world, etc. However, I believe it is possible that speed of time changes from time to time, without people being aware of the change. Again, that leaves time to be what it is, the manifestation of a repetitious change, a grid of sorts. Inside this grid people fit all the events, schedules, making it a very useful instrument of survival. Say, there is no repetitious change around, no Sun, no Moon, no stars, no seasons, no nights. People would get disoriented, and unable to properly run their social affairs. May be, they would start living really long lives, since they would not know when they should be getting old, or die. They would build something gigantic without realizing how much time it takes to build it, build an arc during 120 years, and start having children at 450 years of age. May be, there are benefits in being not limited by time. Then again, people would invent some sort of crude clock anyway, perhaps oriented on a leader's actions. The natural clock is the feeling of hunger and thirst, and other biological needs of live creatures. Those creatures that had no feeling of hunger while starving, simply died out. The feeling of pain is also some sort of clock. As soon as one feels pain, the decision is made to stop painful activity, or to start treatment, or at least to pay attention, to complain, to ask for help. There is different time for everything.

strawpuppy
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Posted 02/16/08 - 08:03 PM:	#7
Time does not exist of itself: It is a tool:

SparrowShadow
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Posted 02/17/08 - 10:36 AM:	#8
From my various readings and physics classes time is described not as a physical force but rather as a dimension like height, width, and depth. To me time is a series of events that are interwoven, all leading to the potiental to become actual. Once something becomes actual it is no longer potiental. We had quite a long discussion in my philosophy class over the matter, of course it might have been so because the philosophy instructor was also the physics instructor.

mutemaler
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Posted 02/17/08 - 01:11 PM:	#9
It is a concept first of all. I think I would just say that it is a way of noting that - in a constantly changing universe - all occurence is ultimately related. In our special take on it, we seem to typically treat it as a backdrop, something 'absolute', supply the unit of measure to this 'it' (treat it as an object, a fetish of ours), assuming periodicity in so doing, not really noticing the element of the arbitrary in the process. mutemaler

WorBlux
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2 of 2 people found this post helpful Posted 02/21/08 - 01:17 PM:	#10
Time is the quality of existence that allows change to occur. At the very least it is the quality of existence which allows us to perceive change Like distance is the quality of existence that allows separation of two objects to occur.

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