Existence of Time

[-OverpoweR-]

So yea, i have been thinking about it a lot recently and i thought maybe i could hear some more opinions and ideas about the concept of Time, what is Time? Does it Really Exist?

 

[Varine]

Technically. We can't measure it but there's a flow of events that suggest a linear structure, which is what we refer to as 'time'. You can look up entropy, which is one of the things that suggest the concept, if you want to read about it. And there are a shitton of books on time itself, but those are typically more for entertainment than education. Plus entropy is fucking awesome so you should read about it anyway.

 

[-OverpoweR-]

I hear ya , whats keeping me amazed is the fact like, when people ask What Time is it? I mean, for me, i just, dont feel like the proper answer is 3:15 AM (for example.) , if you know what i mean. Its like,somethings missing , but unknown for some reason ...

 

[Varine]

That is a different thing entirely that happens to use the same name. And in the general world is far more important. Obviously time in the way of 3:00 or whatever is based on the rotation of Earth, and though you might be like me and be thinking who gives a shit, it still has heavily important uses for society as a whole, even if individually it doesn't really matter.

But back on topic: a lot of people also don't understand that clocks don't measure time in the way you're talking. Clocks measure themselves: to calibrate a clock you use another clock.

And I was in a bit of a hurry yesterday, but I was going to say what entropy even was.

Basically things flow from low entropy to high entropy, like a sand castle falls into a sand pile (in itself, entropy represents the amount of energy available for work in a process, but that isn't important). That is really it all there is to it, but that flow is referred to as the arrow of time. So as time goes forward, entropy increases, and can be used as some form of method to differentiate past from future.

For instance, say you build a house. A house is definitely low entropy; so you go back fifty years later. It's fallen apart, everything is in a pile, it's desolate. It has a higher entropy because it's no longer got such a specific organization. Things have fallen into piles (like they do. Physically there is no reason that sand can't get blown into the form of a sand castle, or a wind storm knocks trees over into a house. But they don't do that, they fall into high entropy piles).

That's a very simplistic overview... it gets a lot cooler. In rereading it I realize how boring that sounds.

 

[Zakyath]

I think that the reason that some physicists claim there is no such thing as time, is that they learn to understand the world through numbers, which are static. But the world the numbers descibe is not necessarily static, which might feel as an odd way to look at things from their point of view.

 

[Varine]

They don't recognize time because it's not a certain concept, and unlike most unproven theories there aren't many observations that follow the set out rules. And it's not even entirely that they claim it doesn't exist, it's that it isn't understood, and not all physicist and mathematicians deal with theoretical mathematics and physics, so their basic go to reaction is avoid it entirely. Besides it's a well documented 'phenomenon' that isn't entirely deniable in some sense.

 

[-OverpoweR-]

That is a different thing entirely that happens to use the same name. And in the general world is far more important. Obviously time in the way of 3:00 or whatever is based on the rotation of Earth, and though you might be like me and be thinking who gives a shit, it still has heavily important uses for society as a whole, even if individually it doesn't really matter.

But back on topic: a lot of people also don't understand that clocks don't measure time in the way you're talking. Clocks measure themselves: to calibrate a clock you use another clock.

And I was in a bit of a hurry yesterday, but I was going to say what entropy even was.

Basically things flow from low entropy to high entropy, like a sand castle falls into a sand pile (in itself, entropy represents the amount of energy available for work in a process, but that isn't important). That is really it all there is to it, but that flow is referred to as the arrow of time. So as time goes forward, entropy increases, and can be used as some form of method to differentiate past from future.

For instance, say you build a house. A house is definitely low entropy; so you go back fifty years later. It's fallen apart, everything is in a pile, it's desolate. It has a higher entropy because it's no longer got such a specific organization. Things have fallen into piles (like they do. Physically there is no reason that sand can't get blown into the form of a sand castle, or a wind storm knocks trees over into a house. But they don't do that, they fall into high entropy piles).

That's a very simplistic overview... it gets a lot cooler. In rereading it I realize how boring that sounds.

quite interesting , definitively something i should look into more... 'in-depth'