h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Now we all know that we are measuring time with a changing clock, but what is it measuring?

If time is the fourth dimension, is it like a pile of photographs of the universe if looked at from the fith dimension.

Is time universal in universes or is it a unique property of a particular universe?

Is there substance of time, or is the substance of time soley made of the 3d things within it?

Alot of questions aren't there.

Researcher PSG

Actually, a wierd question is this. We know time is effected by the speed we are travelling at, so the faster we go the less it effects us, so is time a force or a measurement?

Researcher PSG

I think time is just a measurement... In my thouhts timetravel is when you go beyond time and time no longer exists, just read the bible for example of this. Time is now seeming to go faster and maybe we will sometimes experience that we get out of time not just litteraly but in real life.What happens when time disappears like on my planet. Hello by the way!!!

I think time is just a measurement... In my thoughts timetravel is when you go beyond time and time no longer exists, just read the bible for example of this. Time is now seeming to go faster and maybe we will sometimes experience that we get out of time not just litteraly but in real life.What happens when time disappears like on my planet. Hello by the way!!!

I've been thinking about this point for several weeks now: if I went backwards in time, say 50 years, and I stayed there for 4 days, would the time that I left (2002)carry on whilst I was living in the 1950s? Would I come back to the same point at which I had left 2002, or would I come back 4 days later??? Anyone got any ideas?

KQ

Never mind,... if you timetravel why mind a day or two? -it would not matter would it? Time is a limit of a mind not of eternity!

The most interesting development in physics recently seems to be the discovery that time and all the other dimensions (holding at 11 presently) exist seperatly of our universe and all the parrellel ones that seem to be suggested by M theory. This means we can talk about B4 the big bang and after the end of the universe as it now seems that such times have/will exist.

Sorry if that's slightly misexplained, I'm no expert, just casually read new scientist in doctors surgerys

as I undertand it, M-theory states that time is a property of the multiverse, not the universe, so while it is possible to talk about what happened before the big bang, you are not talking about this universe any more.

I think that time is imaginary. It doesn't really exist and therefore time travel is impossible.

no, time is definately real, and is involved with physics and chemistry at a fundamental level, but the understanding of it is at about the level that gravity was at before newton.

A better understanding will come when science reaches the level required for a good enough explanation of what it is and how it works.

Doesn't everything just move in a plane? I mean, after all, humans are the only creatures on Earth that measure time. And different creatures preceive time at a different rate.

And perhaps different creatures perceive a different amount of dimensions.

Doesn't everything just move in a plane? I mean, after all, humans are the only creatures on Earth that measure time. And different creatures preceive time at a different rate.

And perhaps different creatures perceive a different amount of dimensions.

What exactly are all 11 dimensions?

no. time behaves differently.

you have three spatial dimensions that work as you have described.
you have seven other dimensions that only exist at very small scales.
You have time. This is the entire set of eleven.

time behaves very strangely acording to current scientific knowledge.

for a start, it seems to be intricately tied in with the 3 spatial dimensions, to such an extent that you have to talk about space-time when you get to extremes of size (planetarry or particle scales) or extreme high speed (relativistic velocities).

In fact in some sciences (ie general semantics) simultaneity is viewed as illusionary, determined only by the location in space-time of the individual.

I remember an explaination in an OU (Open University) programme which was startlingly complex, but the ramifications were this...

Imagine two people walking past each other along a corridor. Furthermore, imagine two "point events" taking place on two distant planets ("A" and "B") which are themselves some distance apart. From the point of view of one of the people in the corridor "A" happened before "B", while in the other person's timeframe "B" preceded "A". Both are correct. The tiny differences in the world view of each observer caused by the fact they are in motion in different directions become somehow magnified by distance...

This means that there is no "objective reality" where time is concerned, and leads to the possibility of remote causality violations, where in one observer's timeframe the effect of an interaction happens before the cause...

This would be extremely hard to detect, as differences in observed chronology become more pronounced as the distance between events increases, which makes it less likely that the events being observed are the result of a cause-and-effect interaction...

Comments...?

So in effect you are saying that time is effectively a variable based upon motion and relation to the other motion. In effect, our time agrees because we are all effectively travelling at the same speed (i.e. the speed of the universe) and we cannot alter are speed enough to significantly change it. Does this mean that light speed is not a physical barrier, but a time barrier. And when we reach over the speed of light we slip into another groove of time?

Researcher PSG

"In fact in some sciences (ie general semantics) simultaneity is viewed as illusionary, determined only by the location in space-time of the individual."

Let me get this straight.. what you seem to be saying is that there IS a time and place for everything?

on my moon time seems to go faster and faster... I think we create this image of time or this time on our own but it does exist time
and whos got time ???? and why do time travel create such a problem???

Whilst we are trying to use relativity to fathom time travel we will get nowhere fast! Or would that be Erehwon? It all depends on which side of an arbitrary space/time position you end up at when you slow down again. As you imply relativistic time travel does not actually produce anything of interest beyond oddly aged twins. You are still going to live your 3 score years and 10 no matter how fast you live (as my 95 year old grandma used to tell us (maths and abstention not being a strong point in our family)).

Of course by travelling very fast away from Earth you will experience tremendous leaps in technology everytime you come home and slow down to Earth speed; and this does seem to be our main system of measuring the flow of time today(that and wrinkles).
It would be useful to be able to occasionally leap forward 6 months to skip over that annoying new technology establishment period. The VHS/Betamax question, if you will.
An irresponsible Magrathean approach.