[time-nuts] Time may not exist

[GandalfG8 at aol.com]

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