[time-nuts] Beginner's time reference

[Bill Hawkins]

Here's another way to look at it:

Time is what keeps things from happening all at once.

Also, without time there can be no motion (velocity, acceleration x time).

The units of distance are arbitrary - from the King's foot to a chosen
number of atomic wavelengths. And so the units of time are arbitrary -
fractions of the rotation of the Earth.

Distance exists and time exists, but the measure of things is man - in
the sense that without man, there would be no units of measurement.

I may measure time with a clock, but I can't characterize time. I can
only compare and characterize man's instruments for measuring time.

Maybe it's like people's perception of Evolution. Some see it as a thing
that causes things to be the way they are. Others know that evolution is
a process that describes what happens to genes in changing environments.

Oh, I am collapsing under the weight of these heavy thoughts . . .

Bill Hawkins

 

-----Original Message-----
From: <GandalfG8 at aol.com>
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 11:47 PM
To: <time-nuts at febo.com>
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Beginner's time reference

>
> In a message dated 11/12/2009 21:47:28 GMT Standard Time,
> michael.cook at wanadoo.fr writes:
>
> For me  time just exists. What time nuts do is to try  and measure and
> characterise it.
>
>
> ----------------
> Unfortunately, that's not really the way it is.
>
> Time nuts do not and cannot measure time itself because time as an 
> absolute entity just doesn't exist.
>
> We can measure the length of the intervals between events, time  intervals
> if you choose to call them that, but nobody has ever demonstrated the
> existence of time itself as a measurable quantity.
>
> And just in case anyone wishes to shout me down on this, as happened when 
> I dared to suggest the same some time ago, I have since been heartened to
> read in  Walter Isaacson's excellent biography that a certain Mr Einstein
> arrived at the  same conclusion.
>
> We could of course both be wrong, but at least I'll be wrong in good
> company:-)
>
> regards
>
> Nigel
> GM8PZR
>