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The existence of time

  • 30-07-2007 4:25pm
    #1
    Cianos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,850 ✭✭✭


    I'm interested in finding some (online) reading material that gives a lay-mans discussion on the existence of time. ie, time as a unit of measurement, the argument that the future already 'exists' if this is true, the multi dimensional ranges of time or whatever. you can probably tell I have no idea what im talking about, hence the post :D


Comments

  • #2
    aequinoctium
    Closed Accounts Posts: 667 ✭✭✭aequinoctium


    try to find: 'the fabric of the cosmos' by brian greene


  • #3
    ronbyrne2005
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,494 ✭✭✭ronbyrne2005


    Note time doesnt only "flow" in one direction at the sub atomic level.


  • #4
    Professor_Fink
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 861 ✭✭✭Professor_Fink


    ronbyrne2005 wrote:
    Note time doesnt only "flow" in one direction at the sub atomic level.

    Where did you get that idea? Evolution of quantum systems is a function of time. Sure it's reversible in principle, but not if you consider measurements.


  • #5
    18AD
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,821 ✭✭✭18AD


    http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/barbour/barbour_index.html

    Maybe a bit fringe...


  • #6
    Professor_Fink
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 861 ✭✭✭Professor_Fink


    18AD wrote:
    http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/barbour/barbour_index.html

    Maybe a bit fringe...

    Was this in response to my post? If so, I'd like to point out that the ideas are highly speculative, in that there is no physical evidence supporting them, and they do not arise naturally out of some rule we do know to a high degree of certainty. The work is much more along the lines of 'What if ....' than actually telling us something specific about the universe we inhabit. That's not to belittle it, it's just you need to keep in mind the difference between theoretical results which are grounded in accepted laws of physics and those which make unjustified assumptions to see where these assumptions would lead.


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  • #7
    18AD
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,821 ✭✭✭18AD


    Yeah, there's no doubt that it was quite an assumptious article, I just thought it was an interesting perspective.


  • #8
    great unwashed
    Closed Accounts Posts: 146 ✭✭great unwashed


    ronbyrne2005 wrote:
    Note time doesnt only "flow" in one direction at the sub atomic level.

    Time 'flowing' are you referring to Brian Greene's book there?

    Is there an ultimate measurement for time? certain materials emit at a certain rate and the earth turns at a certain rate. I always thought Time was a rate of decay - a rate of accumulation of entropy (disorder) which went in one direction from a state of order.

    How can time 'flow' in other 'directions'?


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