[time-nuts] Time may not exist
GandalfG8 at aol.com
GandalfG8 at aol.com
Sat Jul 28 08:21:16 UTC 2007
In a message dated 28/07/2007 05:49:07 GMT Daylight Time, bill at iaxs.net
writes:
Before this subject deteriorates into what trial lawyers and
politicians excel at (twisting words to obscure the truth),
consider what happens if time does not exist.
Velocity is distance moved per unit of time, or distance is
velocity times time. If time does not exist, then nothing moves.
Reproduction becomes impossible.
Even thought becomes impossible because neurons fire depending
on the pulse rate at synapses.
Not to mention communication and other things that are frequency
sensitive, including light and radiant heat.
And then there's the matter of Earth rotating in several ways.
Since all of these things do exist, time exists. It is what goes
on inside the brains of quantum physicists that leads them to
make rash statements about things they cannot measure. As I
recall, the derivation of the Planck length seemed suspect.
--------------------------------------
But does time actually does exist in an absolute sense?
There are intervals between events, that we refer to as "time" or the
"passage of time", and we choose to allocate a unit to this, the "second", just as
we choose to allocate units to distance and mass.
Distance and mass, however, are a bit more user friendly, in that generally
there is at least the possibility that a given distance or mass will remain
obligingly the same for long enough to enable a repeat measurement, albeit
within certain tolerances.
This doesn't apply to time, nor to anything else once time becomes involved,
which in itself, of course, makes the above statement extremely suspect:-)
With time, it's those intervals between events that we seek to measure with
ever increasing precision, and great fun it is too:-), but however
"repetitive" given events are the "same" event never occurs twice and neither does the
same interval.
This may all seem boringly obvious but, since "time" depends for it's
existence on these patterns of events and the intervals between them, the question
as to whether time itself really exists as a quantity may turn out to be not
quite so trivial after all.
regards
Nigel
GM8PZR
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