Time

[rainingblood666]

What is time? What is made of? I have always thought about it. Once I brought this topic up with my friends they started arguing about, so I want to see what you guys think about it!

[OmegaChosen]

time's kind of weird. i don't really think it's made of anything. it kind of like up and down, left and right but in a different direction. the time direction. :)

[Mrdelta]

I tend to think of time as a measurement but strictly speaking I believe it is considered one of the 4 dimensions we deal with every day. width height length and time. the first three forming an object while the last allowing it to move or change.

[silent_howl]

time is only an illusion, if you could possibli return in the past, when you will be there it will be now, only in the present.
it is some kind of philosophic argument, like you can't live in the past or the futur, you live now and only now. because if you don't, your death. easy as that.

time is no material or not, it is not heavy or or rough, is not happy or cruel, can't be quantified or mesured.

Time does exist, only in our mind,it be to definite what we have alredy done and what we will do.
I don't think this question can be respond, because we can't live in an other time, than the present, always the present.

[Sniper]

According to most theories in quantum physics, there is a definite beginning and end to time. Also, if you go outside time, you'd be able to view all periods of time at once, even the future. Think of it like looking at a film reel where you can see all the scenes at once, even the ones that haven't played yet.

[ghassassin]

Scientifically speaking, time is just a fundamental quantity used to define other quantities. Einstein's theory of relativity somewhat proved the constancy of speed of light. That further (in a complicated mathematical way) defines that time for one individual can be different than time for another individual, relatively.

Philosophically, time is the framework in which an individual perceives the sequences of events and compares them, like what you call past, present or future.

Psychologically, time depends on the state of mind. Like when you are bored, time appears to move slowly. Comparisons can be drawn with drugs. Depending on the dosage, an individual can perceive time as flowing backwards, stagnant, fast, slow etc.

You can debate for your whole life, yet fail to come up with a "definite" answer....that suits you. There are many restrictions to this notion as well, like mental, physical, scientific etc., constraints can change the definition of time for you. For instance the Planck's time, in quantum theory. It says that [...a number...] is the smallest unit of time that can be theoretically measured. Eventually, what my clock reads, is time for me.

[ilesheya]

Time is pretty confusing... I picture it as just a way of keeping things in order. Not really sure. Maybe to keep everyone in place on what they'll do, what they're going to do. Things like that. Time itself has no real ... body ... it just keeps on going and going and going. Time is really a strange thing because sometimes when you want it to slow down it seems to go faster but when you don't want it to go faster it tends to seem slower than usual. Well time to me is that thing on the bottom right thing on the bottom of the screen of a computer of the circular object that constantly ticks or that alarm device that makes me wake up every morning. Man time sure is confusing @_@

[ayashi]

"Time" separates events, just as "Space" is what separates locations.

BTW, i always smile at concepts such as the begining of the end of time. Existance can not be defined outside of time (and space), making such concepts ... moot.

[rainingblood666]

I also thought isn't time just an organization tool for the speed of light. I mean we were talking about in class that the faster you go the slower the time is, so basically isn't time just another one of humans tools.

[Malanchie]

Personally, I dont think time exist. I mean many people use it in math and other scientific methods but i dont see how it can exist. It has no body and no real purpose besides the whole distance and space thing. I'll agree with what someone before said about how it seems to slow down and speed up. Which i still don't understand how that whole things works out. Time seems just man made to help organize and keep people on track. Without god knows what people would be doing. School could be at night. So, even then its hard to say to yourself time doesn't exist because you use it everyday.
But, my main point is, that for, me time is man made and isn't really there except for scientific needs and such.

[ghassassin]

so basically isn't time just another one of humans tools.

It is.....and it is not. "Second", "minute", "hour" etc., are tools, time isn't. It is a quantity or in vague sense, a phenomena which exists. Time is independent of spatial composition. Everything flows in time, even if its stagnant in space. For instance, light.

"Light travels in straight line", is something known even to a 5th grader. It does, only in 4-dimensional geometry. Remove the time dimension and light no longer travels in straight line. This has actually been proved scientifically, in cosmological studies and macroscopic objects.

[methaniel]

Actually, some of you said there is no time...but well Ghass and others explained pretty well what's the 4th dimension already. And for a human, it's impossible to think out of time, or almost. Being absolute with time (I mean not being related to it), is only the principe of God. Can you jut imagine what it means for time not existing? That means everything don't move, or since there is no way of definiting now, before and after...evertything is just one...kinda weird
But about a physical time...I don't remember it well, since it's not a subject I really look at, but isn't it possible with Einstein's theory to move forward time and space by using maybe he black holes (though it's only speculation based on how Einstein had thought the Universe, since we don't know what is in Black Holes...)

[ghassassin]

but isn't it possible with Einstein's theory to move forward time and space by using maybe he black holes (though it's only speculation based on how Einstein had thought the Universe, since we don't know what is in Black Holes...)

Well, there is no time in black hole, to begin with.
Theory of Relativity says that as you approach a black hole your time slows down. The closer you get to the black hole the more you appear to be in slow motion as seen by Earth. Eventually, you appear to be frozen in time as you cross the event horizon. You would notice nothing different whatsoever. In Einstein's words, "If you were to change your mind right before crossing the event horizon and return to Earth you would find it in the very distant future." (Or something like that)

[methaniel]

Ah, okay thanks for the precision...so that's where the theory about the twins came (the theory with one twin leaving Earth for some years, but time passed faster or slower for her sister and when she erturns...they haven't the same age...in a ay, isn't that already the same when you make the travel of our world? When you came to your depart point after the trip, you have lived one more or less day than those who haven't move, no? Or maybe I'm confusing).
Time really is too abstarct for me (by the same time, it's also completly real though...), I guess it's hard to see something you are relative to, since we can't be absolute to time...meeh, the simple concept of absolute/relative is already strange enough for blocking the way to understand correctly how time flows in a philosophical way...

[Malanchie]

Thank you Ghass and Meth for those wonderful explinations. What you said reminds me something that einstein said once. I think it was the faster you move the slower things around you do and the slower you move the faster things will move around you. If i didnt get that right tell me.

[methaniel]

Ahah, I haven't explain anything here...it's Ghass who explain me...
Anyway, about this sentence, just by common sense, it's just that for example when you don't move and see a train, it seems fast...but when you are in a car moving in the same direction of the train, then it seems slower... Well from that, I guess you can extend that idea to time (isn't it the same when you are spending a good day? When you do nothing, time seems slow, but when you are moving, and having fun, the day finished too damn fast...it's something else, but kinda realted in a way...). That's what I think of with you citation Malanchie. After that I dno't have clear example for this itation with time flowing faster or not...but it's the idea of being relative to time or not

[Malanchie]

Cool. Time is weird though to say the least. What make sme belive that time isn't real is how we have daylight saving time. I mean if time were something real then you shouldn't be able to turn it back an hour or forward an hour.

[methaniel]

The Daylight saving time is another thing here. Time is a natural flow, then the humans tried put a name on it and tried too to mesure it (like the distance too in feet or meters)...and so they "built" a scale based on minutes, day, years, etc...But it's still something made by humans. The calcul where pretty complicated for having the exact number when the Earth made a complete turn around the sun (a year)...and it's even not really precise (since all 4 years there is this famous day in february)...
The daylight saving time is yet another thing, it was made at first for something more "real"...it was made for avoiding unnecessary use of electricity (or whatever it was in this time). Ifnot, you'll have some day when you live a lot during the night, thanks to the moving of the day (which is normal, due to the fact that the Earth has an angle, so some face is longer in sun than the other...)...I guess that's it about the daylight time saving (and by the same time the calendar)

[ghassassin]

Well time does exist and the theory of relativity proves it. The most basic notion is that speed of light is constant, no matter where you go. Had the space only been 3 dimensional, distance traveled by light would have been independent of our time clocks. "Second" is a tool used for convenience, indeed. But distance traveled by light in what we define as a "second" is always the same.

Had time been non-existent, that would mean things which exist already existed. We would still have been living in the moment of big-bang. Earth completes its rotation in 24 hours. You can say that it only changes its polar co-ordinates at the same exact moment. The very fact that change in those polar co-ordinates is constant in an interval of.....what? That "what", in the vaguest of sense can be called time.

But well, science is based on observations rather than theories. Nothing can accurately be known. Whatever suits us and is easy, becomes science. And actually, mathematical solution do exist showing the non-existence of time (Gordel's incompleteness theorem, but I won't dare go into that), and then there comes the term "exceptions".

Waiting for a "Unified" theory (maybe a day, year, forever?) won't be a bad idea to clear misconceptions.

[Neji2112]

modern civilizations, see time as a strait line, constantly progressing foreward. on the other hand, the ancient civilizations, especially the Mayans, saw time as a circle constantly repeating itself after each major cycle of time, based on their observations of the cycles of the sun, moon, stars, and planets. in the Mayan calander the end of the current cycle is said to end in late, December of 2012. the ancient predictions, says that it (beginning of the new cycle) will be a time of great destruction and judgment. the last cycle beginning around 3000-5000 years ago

also for smaller animals, time for them moves slower, because the ammount of time it takes for the signals of the animals brain cells to communicate with each other because of the distance thay have to travel is shorter. Computers work the same way. the shorter and smaller the terminals, the faster the signal can be relayed back and forth within the circuits, creating faster computers.

[ghassassin]

Well, certainly you went the wrong way. If I travel 2 miles and the other person travels 200 miles, time is same for us. It doesn't mean, it would be 2 PM for me and 5 PM for somebody else >.>

[Neji2112]

i was talking about the distance between brain cells and the time it takes for the signal to get a responce, interprit it, and react to it. if the distances are shorter the time it takes to travel them is shorter. and because of this, smaller animals, have faster reaction times, and time, in contrast to our perception, seems slower.

[The0s]

Time..time is the only thing that is absolutely inevitable (;
Humans thought of hours minutes seconds and etc. to count the time but time is Eternity itself. Time is as well the only thing that can't be affected by anyone or anything. But who knows.. maybe man will create a time machine in the years to come x)

[rainingblood666]

I also thought time as part of another alternate universe that links this universe with the other one. What i mean is that in this universe time is strange and unreal to us. This is because (in my opinion) it is part of a different world.

[cornpopsicle]

http://www.tenthdimension.com/medialinks.php

Has a nice explanation about one theory of time.

[Vermillius]

Time is only confusing because it is mislabeled as time. Time and Space are the same thing so the correct expression is Space-Time. When you look at "Time" as "Space-Time" it becomes much more intuitive.

[lucaz]

Does future exist?
A simple question, no?

Let's think about that in a more profound way.
It's a sure thing the past exists, the past is the path we took, the path that living beings took for over millions of years.
Of course the therms itself or the awareness of those therms didn't exist till some thousands of years ago.

When I've finished making this thread, the making of this thread will be in the past. We can be sure the pas exists.

The existence of present actually is quite hard to understand because the moment we do something it's already in the past. We can't do something that stays in the present. Present is actually the turning point to the past.

Back to the future!
Future doesn't exist in that what we call reality, we can't do anything in the future. I think you all agree with me on that one.
But in the world of thoughts, just to give it a name, I think future doesn't exist as well.

You can make plans for the future in your head but from the moment you've thought of those they'll become past.

Take for example the thought:
"I'll go to the bathroom in 5 minutes."

In reality that hasn't happened yet but in our thoughts that already became past. from the moment we think of something in the future, it already happened in our thoughts.

You can say now:
"But in reality it hasn't happened yet, it'll happen in the future.

You're right, I stated it a bit wrong at first. (But I'm too lazy to change it all).
The idea of future exists but future itself doesn't.

[Nihilux]

I'm in for a quick comment; gonna add more later, but I thought I should add that Jean Paul Sartre had this idea about how the negation in the human being allowed free will.
Whenever we took the measure of a better self we'd be that future self in the way that I'm not him.
If I were him there'd be only positivity and things would end up as it would; but I'm him as I can become him if by choice. The negation that allows one to break the chains of causality, also allows us to imagine the future.
((Sartre uses the example of him going to meeting his friend Pierre at a café to show the negation. When he arrives he expects to see Pierre, but Pierre is not there. The café falls into the background while Pierre's NonBeing becomes appearent. Something like that; I'm reaching it all out of my head and it's a while since I read any Sartre))

[skunkn]

wow... this is a rather simple question with complicated answer

if you are asking if a future is like past, cant be changed, already fixed, then i guess the answer for me is yes, it is.

to me, you cant see the future, so however you want to change the future, you cant. cause you cant see it, you dont know what to change, and no matter what you do, you would do the same thing as in the 'future'. it is unavoidable.

hence, for me, the answer to ur question is yes, future does exist.

[silent_howl]

futur hum..I think that is in the point of view of the person who you ask the question. for you the futur doesn't exist even if it does, since you think about doing something in the futur...

for skunkn the futur exist, but canot be change and it's like fixed clue...one way and only one

but I think that the futur can be anticipate and avoided, for instance:

if i'm standing near a building and a rock falls from the roof, I can anticipate that in ''1,5 sec'', it will smack my head, but if someone push me on the right and the rock fell on my left, then the futur I had anticipate is avoided even if I really thought that should have happen.

then the futur can nearly be seen, always in a fog, but can be change

[conradxu]

once the past is written it can never be changed right?

the future is a page yet to be written.

we can only have one past and one future.

what we do now affects the future

we dont know what the future brings

. .
. the present always comes before the future///future comes after present

it will never come because it is defines as what yet to come

.
. . the future does exist inorder to obtain a past and present

futur hum..I think that is in the point of view of the person who you ask the question. for you the futur doesn't exist even if it does, since you think about doing something in the futur...

for skunkn the futur exist, but canot be change and it's like fixed clue...one way and only one

but I think that the futur can be anticipate and avoided, for instance:

if i'm standing near a building and a rock falls from the roof, I can anticipate that in ''1,5 sec'', it will smack my head, but if someone push me on the right and the rock fell on my left, then the futur I had anticipate is avoided even if I really thought that should have happen.

then the futur can nearly be seen, always in a fog, but can be change

then your future would mean that you would not have been hit by the rock

[Lone_ant]

The future does not exist yet. Time is not a long roll of paper on a seismograph, where the lines are the past, the "being written" lines are the present, and the black pages left are the future. No. Although we do not have a universal and formal definition of Time as of now, I believe that Time, is a measure of existance, as existance(int he material sense) is basically what is defined by space-time.

Since we cannot observe nor go to the past or future in our universe as far as we know, as long as there are no evidence otherwise, only the present which we can empirically observe exists, in so far as we can perceive it. The present comes from the past, the future comes from the present, but in terms of existance(material) only the present exists, due to it's very definition.

But we cannot deny that the past once existed (as far as we can prove), while the future's existance is always unsure.

[Silky Daze]

Late night dorm room conversations like these.....they really do bring back sweet memories. But you know.....even though time doesn't exist in the linear abstract sense that we think it does, the mere fact that we can concieve a future means that it exists. If we couldn't concieve of it, it wouldn't exist.

[lucaz]

Late night dorm room conversations like these.....they really do bring back sweet memories. But you know.....even though time doesn't exist in the linear abstract sense that we think it does, the mere fact that we can concieve a future means that it exists. If we couldn't concieve of it, it wouldn't exist.

No, you're wrong there.
That's one of the biggest mistakes a human can make.
Our thoughts, opinions don't have the power to create; conceiving things don't make those things true.

I agree with you on the first part. Like I stated before:
The idea of future, things that'll happen exists but the future itself doesn't.

[Dei]

The future is detemined by the actions we take.

[matsuro]

I like to believe that we make our own future and that we don't have it set out predetermined, I don't think anyone can prove that we can't change our own future. Is me typing this post right now predetermined? I would like to think it isn't.

[lucaz]

The future is detemined by the actions we take.

I like to believe that we make our own future and that we don't have it set out predetermined, I don't think anyone can prove that we can't change our own future. Is me typing this post right now predetermined? I would like to think it isn't.

Read the topic head before you post something please.
This thread isn't about determinism, destiny or fate.
It's about the existing or non-existing of the future.

[matsuro]

Sorry about that, well I'd have to agree that the future doesn't exist really, most people think of the future as years from now but when that time comes it'll be our present not our future. The future is just blank and when things happen its already the past.

[Jmsn]

My coherent argument is simply that we can only conceive of the future simply as a concept.The moment the future is recognized by the senses it becomes the present.What ever is in the present is in actuality at that instant in the past.Please do take into consideration there is a slight delay fractions of a second of time that it takes for all 5 senses to hit the brain and give us a coherent interpretation of the present and by then its passed.What we work with or experience is more like an afterimage of the present or in its definition,the past!

In fact,the future can only exist in an abstract manner as a concept or an idea.This idea allowing us to better prepare for the unknown when it occurs.Our minds can not even catch up with the present on a biological sense because what we have to work with is already past.Theres no way our minds will ever catch up to the future. Thus I argue that outside of simply being an idea or concept, the future does not actually exist.

It is possible to predict ,prepare for and do so with such accuracy that you may for example deflect an attack .However this is using the future as a conceptual template and acting on it with accuracy, not seeing into the future.As a concept and template for the mind to work with the future does exist.

May I call the future a paradox?

[Neji2112]

acording to an idea by Einstein, and later used in String, M(membrane), and Supergravity theories, we live in a four dimentional universe, the fourth dimention being "time".( their are thought to be eleven dimentions in total, because that is the only number that fits the equasions.) if we we could somehow remove our selves from the fourth dimention of time, yet still be able to view it, all of time would occour and continously occour all at once, and because of our existance ouside of time we would be albe to see the the past, present, and future all at once, yet because we are out side of time, time would forever be occuring.

of course im being incredibly hypothetical here of course, but just an idea. now, i dont believe that the future is set in stone, and that we still ahve the ability to change it, because for us, it has yet to be become the past, which cannot be changed.

now can the future be predicted? yes, i think it can, but the predictions may only be symbolic or a loose description of what may happen if things take a certain path.

but life is like the plinko board from "The Price is Right", you never know were the little plinko chip is going to end up when it's done. each peg can represent a decision we make in life, and the direction the chip falls, is like decision we make. and what happens to us afterwords comes from the decisions we made in the past.

[Assassin_In_Training]

Time is a fluctuating and inconsistent anomaly. Einstein proved that it is not constant, much to everyone's surprise at the time, through his theory of relativity. Basically the faster you move, the slower time moves around you. This also works for masses, because the bigger in mass you are, the more of a gravitational pull you will have, and the higher the gravity, the slower the passage of time.

Time is also an illusion in most ways. That's because humans have tried to attach labels to something that they can't understand. Second, hours, minutes, days, months, etc. are just attempts to control the uncontrollable. They mean nothing. If the clock says 9:00 p.m., and I say it's 230:00 d.m., nothing changes besides the way you look at me. Numbers are just tools used to restrain wild theories from becoming facts.

However time is easily seen in 3-D. The changing of the seasons, the aging of one's body, the birth and death of life, all of those are natural times. Those are the seconds and hours of nature. They are the closest thing we have to absolute value for time.

[Lone_ant]

Ah, nice topic, in fact my favorite topic =)

Time a.k.a The arrow of entropy, reaper of all things, the great healer, Time the Mysterious.

Although indeed the future does not exist yet, Time itself exists and is not simply a matter of perception or consciousness. As the theory of relativity attests, Mass and Acceleration both desrupt Time. If it is merely a figment of our imagination, then the Laws of Physics wouldn't be able to affect it so directly. let us not get confused with Physical Time and subjective time. The other is real in a way that space and gravity is, while the other is not, like flying pigs and negative numbers.

The question now is: What is this Time that we so vaugely name? Does the cessation of change mean the cessation of Time? If yes then Time is merely the rate of change a part of the universe. If no, then all we can describe it is some other dimension (like the spatial dimensions) that we move inexorably forward in, why we do not know.

I think the answer is no. This is similar to the zen question: "A tree falls in a lonely forest. Is there a sound?" to which my answer is yes, because regardless of wether there is no one to hear it, the air vibrates and creates the sound. Existance is apart from perception. Moreover, as has I have stated the rate of change or Time (or more accurately, space-time) is affected by Mass and Acceleration, it is not merely an arbitrary rate of change.

[animemaniac]

/I have two side on this...

One is that time is nothing more than what the human mind thinks so that they can know and pretty much conrtol the 'when to do' kind of thing.

Another is that it's also our friend that can give us memories to what we did in THAT 'time'
All the happy thing and the bond shared to and the time that people can always cherish.

[motley crue]

Eisntein said it was a dimesnion.
I look at it as a continuus change
that flows constintly but can change
depending on the gravitational field.
so the change in time depends on the gravity,
thats why time goes slower in a black hole.
time cannot be seperated from the spacial dimensions, because
they depiend on each other, or intertwined, so that means
that time cant stop.
but that leaves a question: cant time stop with a powerfull enough gravitational field?
i say no, becouse i dont think time can completely stop, i doing so, how can the spacial dimension exist?
and time travel is possible, because particles can go back, and the laws of quantum mechanics allow it, and so did Eistien in relativity.

[Sharkyland]

To me (in simple terms):
"Time is an interval that an event takes place. For something to occur, some measurement is needed to record that event."

For example:
- Blinking your eyes is an event.
- Thinking of something in your mind is an event.
- World War II is an event.
- Sleeping is an event (you may not know it but someone else does).
- Remember an event is an event.

Though if someone in the future went to the past and killed one of your parents before they gave birth to you, you wouldn't exist because the 'event' of your birth was eliminated. I really believe that this cannot happen because we only define time by the measurements we have been educated by.

[Lazynyanko]

I think that time is just a series of events. If there were no time we would probably be frozen and the earth would not exist. the earth was from a small substance in a shape of a golfball and it took TIME for it to explode to create the solar system.

[svartöga]

Isnt Time just a result of movement?

So, it's not the time that create the movement, it's the movement that create the time. so you cant say that it has to take time for something to explode since it's the movement in the explosion that create the time... or something like that... I think that gravitation also has something with time to do...

[Vermillius]

I'm not sure if I've said it before on this thread, but since i find this question all the time, I will say the same thing: Time and Space are the same thing. The correct term is actually Space-Time. When you understand that, it becomes less of a complicated abstract concept, and more of a simple principle.

[Lone_ant]

To me (in simple terms):
"Time is an interval that an event takes place. For something to occur, some measurement is needed to record that event."

For example:
- Blinking your eyes is an event.
- Thinking of something in your mind is an event.
- World War II is an event.
- Sleeping is an event (you may not know it but someone else does).
- Remember an event is an event.

Though if someone in the future went to the past and killed one of your parents before they gave birth to you, you wouldn't exist because the 'event' of your birth was eliminated. I really believe that this cannot happen because we only define time by the measurements we have been educated by.

I think that time is just a series of events. If there were no time we would probably be frozen and the earth would not exist. the earth was from a small substance in a shape of a golfball and it took TIME for it to explode to create the solar system.

Isnt Time just a result of movement?

So, it's not the time that create the movement, it's the movement that create the time. so you cant say that it has to take time for something to explode since it's the movement in the explosion that create the time... or something like that... I think that gravitation also has something with time to do...

These three arguments all point to one thing, that time is does not exist but is rather a unit of measurement imposed by the Human Mind. However this goes right against the face of the idea of Relativity in that time (space-time) is influenced by gravity/acceleration. If time (space-time) is merely an "idea" and not a "thing" then the laws of physics cannot affect it so directly.

I'm not sure if I've said it before on this thread, but since i find this question all the time, I will say the same thing: Time and Space are the same thing. The correct term is actually Space-Time. When you understand that, it becomes less of a complicated abstract concept, and more of a simple principle.

Indeed I find it fascinating how a lot of concepts are actually the same thing, like the diffrent forms of water are all diffrent manifestations of the compound H2O. Time and Space is related in the same way that Mass and Energy, Gravity and Acceleration, Subtraction and Addition, Multiplication and Division, etc. is related :D

[bwormking]

humans have not evolved enough yet to truly understand time.

[skunkn]

humans have not evolved enough yet to truly understand time.

wha??

wow... that is a rather simple answer :D

but i think i agree with u, time is simply too complex for us to understand :D

but to me, time is simply a name for well, time :D

ok, i cant really explain what i mean without using time... so let time be abc, will that do?? :D

to me, time is basically a measurement. a measurement of how long we took to do something

it is basically an abc which just passed like air.

and it is just a way to mark out our passing days. seconds and minutes are used for that purpose too.

going to the past or the future to me, is like changing from one place to another, in a different abc, hence, to me, abc is like a neverending cycle that had never existed.

cancel out abc from ur life and u get a continuos day, with u growing and all

let me illustrate my point :
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/skunktree/sasa2313.jpg

that is what u get with time

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/skunktree/sawe2.jpg

that is what u get without time

see the difference??

time is like a measurement, it never exist, that is what it means for me anyway :D

u can have 365 days and classify it as 1 day with the sun coming down and up 365 times :D

[nope]

Time is pretty simple to understand. from the beggining of... time, it has been continuously flowing to this point and will continue, long past when im finished typing and your finished reading. Since the beggining, as soon as man has gained intelligence they have observed and determined the flow of time, which on earth is completely linear. this is shown by early farming cultures using the seasons to determin planting and harvesting seasons and other civilizations building callanders to measure the linear flow of time on the planet. time on earth is very simple to a point where even the most primitive observers of astronomy the linear flow of time on the planet. though once you start looking out of space time becomes uncertain, because the flow of time is uncertain and in theory its even possible to move forward in time.

[Lone_ant]

wha??

wow... that is a rather simple answer :D

but i think i agree with u, time is simply too complex for us to understand :D

but to me, time is simply a name for well, time :D

ok, i cant really explain what i mean without using time... so let time be abc, will that do?? :D

to me, time is basically a measurement. a measurement of how long we took to do something

it is basically an abc which just passed like air.

and it is just a way to mark out our passing days. seconds and minutes are used for that purpose too.

going to the past or the future to me, is like changing from one place to another, in a different abc, hence, to me, abc is like a neverending cycle that had never existed.

cancel out abc from ur life and u get a continuos day, with u growing and all

let me illustrate my point :
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/skunktree/sasa2313.jpg

that is what u get with time

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/skunktree/sawe2.jpg

that is what u get without time

see the difference??

time is like a measurement, it never exist, that is what it means for me anyway :D

u can have 365 days and classify it as 1 day with the sun coming down and up 365 times :D

Yes, yes, I understand. As you understand it, time is merely a word, a measurement. But let us clarify one thing. Time (as in a part of reality) and time (as a measurement) are two diffrent things. The first is akin to Space or Energy, while the second is more closer to meter, calory and Kelvin.

Let us not confuse the two, and I think we are talking about the first type of Time here. As I have said, this Time exists because the laws of Physics can directly affect it (Gravitaional Distortion, Relativistic elongation etc...) the same way that apples are affected by Forces such as Gravity or your punch; the same way that the Nucleus is held together by the Strong and Weak Nuclear force. This Time is not merely an artificial creation by man for convenience for measuring agricultural time or how long before lunch break is. This Time is a "thing" that exists. The problem is defining what this "thing" exactly is.

[shadow stalker]

If we were to completely understand time then our brains would soon die out. the reason for this is time is as vast as space or the universe. we can never truly map it out like we would want to. but of course that means that we could go crazy over the fact. its a shame that we can't comprehend it.

[NineTailedNaruto9892]

Time is not an object that we can see. It is a scientific tool that we use to help us understand the cycles of the sun, moon, and other celestial bodies

[Lone_ant]

We cannot see the wind but it is an object because it is affected by Force (as in Physical force)

Time is not a material object per se, nevertheless because it is affected by Force (as in gravitational force, acceleration) then it EXISTS beyond our minds, beyond our measurement systems.

Man why do I have to keep repeating myself on the proof that Time exists?

@ Shadowstalker, but we could still try right? I mean, the wheel would've never been invented if nobody ever tried.