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Oetzi Oetztaler....Anti Apartheid Started conversation Oct 16, 2003
Tango have you given up on the quest to define "time".
I like this question because you really have to grapple with classical physics. Not sure what level the "A" is at nowadays but back in 1971 the quantum stuff had just been introduced.
DO NOT SPEND TOO MUCH TIME ON THIS QUESTION
really it's a bit of fun!
My definition would revolve around an entropy argument, annoyed I told you...well there you go, sorry mate, hate to see folks suffer!
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Tango Posted Oct 16, 2003
Are you refering the to laws of thermodynamics? The one about entrophy in a closed system always increases with time? As that law mentions time, i don't think it can be used as a definition of time. Something about the way of diferenciating between different configurations of space might work better...
Tango
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Oetzi Oetztaler....Anti Apartheid Posted Oct 16, 2003
If we look on the upside T you certainly are getting a good deal from the Beeb. One thing is for certain you are keeping people in work and holding up UK plc ltd etc. Statistically speaking they'll have to invent a new programme for you buster!
Keep on posting brother!
Oetz
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Oetzi Oetztaler....Anti Apartheid Posted Oct 17, 2003
Thanks for the reply. I had not considered the model of a closed system. In my model, as the universe expands, so does time. But then I dispute the universe to be finite as most insist. Time then is the dissapation of energy toward infinity. It never ends.
No one else seems to agree with this. Too bad!
Regards Oetz..... sorry if I caused upset T, I can be naughty at times like most of us!
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Tango Posted Oct 17, 2003
You're not the one causing upset, don't worry. 
The universe is, by definition, a closed system, because there is nothing outside it to effect it. Therefore over time entrophy will increase. You could quite easilly use the increase of entrophy as a measure of time. (ie. you are a time traveller, and have got lost, you do a quick count of the entrophy in the universe, and if it is lower than when you started you have gone back in time, if its higher you have gone foward)
Size of the universe is a tricky one. I like the phrase "finite yet unbounded", meaning it has a fixed size, but doesn't have an edge. You can think of it as like a circle, the circumferance is fixed, yet it doesn't have an end. The universe has a set start point, and set start size, and a set expansion rate, therefore it must be finite. That makes sense to me, how about you?
Tango
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