Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Is time change/movement ?

  • 22-05-2015 4:43pm
    #1
    blinding
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 7,466 ✭✭✭


    Can there be change/ movement without time ?

    It certainly takes time (newtonian) as we know it to move !

    Do we need time to change or move ?


Comments

  • #2
    Morbert
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,457 ✭✭✭Morbert


    Do we need time to change or move ?

    In Newtonian physics and quantum mechanics, time how we parametrise change. As a system evolves, we record the various states of the system, label each state with a time, and correlate the states via some equation of motion.

    In general relativity, time is an a posteriori, observer-dependent coordinate we use to label events. Unlike in Newtonian physics, different observers will employ different time coordinates. There is, however, a 4-dimensional structure in which events and histories are embedded, called spacetime. Spacetime is invariant and agreed upon by all observers. It is also dynamic and subject to physical laws. The ontology of spacetime is up for debate. (Philosophers don't agree over whether spacetime is substantive, or just a means of capturing relativistic dynamics).

    tl;dr: Time as part of a coordinate system does not exist physically, and is a mathematical tool used by physicists to study change. Spacetime is the background for events, and may be physical.


Advertisement