Is Time a constant?

[weeman]

Quick question.<br /><br />Is time ticking at the same pace for all of the universe? <br /><br />For example, as I'm sitting here at my computer, I'm technically not sitting still. I am sitting on Earth which is rotating on its axis, while it orbits around the sun, while the solar system orbits around the galactic center, while the Milky Way rockets through expanding space.<br /><br />So, since the universe is expanding, and more distant galaxies are expanding at a higher velocity, then would the distant galaxies experience a higher amount of time dilation than us? Or do we experience the same amount of time dilation as even the most distant galaxies? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Techies: We do it in the dark. </font></strong></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>"Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.</strong><strong>" -Albert Einstein </strong></font></p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Time dialation is interesting topic.I read it and forgot it number of times.I ill read again and post tomorrow.<br /><br />I read it and forget it .I shall read again and tell.<br /><br /><i>***Edited to shorten the length of the post by removing spaces.***</i><br />

 

[alkalin]

Time is a virtual message in our brain about the motion of objects which may seem like a ‘ticking’ in the universe. TIME is a process we envision because of motion and we put a label on that process. Time is not a process separate from the reality of motion and does not inflate, contract, or change in any way unless certain motions are occurring to suggest somehow that time dilation is involved. Time dilation is only an illusion if the universe is no expanding. That’s my two cents worth of time on this, since the motion of my hands on the keyboard seemed like time to me.

 

[shadow735]

Time is relative right?<br />Wouldnt the flow of time be relative to the gavitational effects of the area of space that you are located in? SO in effect you would not notice if time speed up of slowed down because to you time would be flowing at a steady pace.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[weeman]

You are correct. But if you could, hypothetically, get a bird's-eye-view of all the clocks in the entire universe, would they all tell different times? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Techies: We do it in the dark. </font></strong></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>"Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.</strong><strong>" -Albert Einstein </strong></font></p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

That depends. Remember, all clocks in the Universe are in their own, relative, frame of motion. If some are moving far slower than you (or within an intense gravitational field), and some far faster, and assuming you could image them in real-time, then the answer is "yes," they would show different times (as measured against some long-ago agreed upon standard reference time).<br /><br />Time does exist. All physical processes require cause-and-effect to operate. Without time operating as we (poorly) comprehend it, effect would appear without cause, events would operate forward, backwards, all willy-nilly. Simply, it <i>must</i> exist for our poor Universe to even exist at all. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[vintersorg]

So, if a human is placed in a different time frame, does he physically move faster/slower? Or gets old faster/slower? Also, the fastest you move, the slower time goes, right? I never fully understood that..

 

[yevaud]

Well, everything possessing mass in this Universe has it's own inertial frame of reference. Call it your own personal time. It's usually 100% in synch with the local world around you.<br /><br />But in the presence of an intense gravitational field, or traveling at some significant portion of "C," your "personal" time slows down. Simply, it's an effect of mass or gravity affecting the fabric of space-time.<br /><br />So it's entirely possible for you, the outside observer, to see someone moving faster than you or slower than you, depending on the frame of reference you are within and/or they are within. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[sssalvi]

" So, if a human is placed in a different time frame, does he physically move faster/slower? "<br /><br />Interesting query. Can a man's life span adjust to local time? .. If he lives for 70 yrs on earth will he live for 70 yrs based on local time rate or will his lifetime shorten or extend as per earth's time frame?<br /><br />Einstein said, Yes, but what is the physical significance?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

 

[kyle_baron]

<font color="yellow"><br />Time does exist. All physical processes require cause-and-effect to operate. Without time operating as we (poorly) comprehend it, effect would appear without cause, events would operate forward, backwards, all willy-nilly.</font><br /><br />That's true on a macro-astronomical level. But on the quantum level, there is a lot of willy-nilliness occuring. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="4"><strong></strong></font></p> </div>

 

[R1]

(true, at the quantum level causality, and everything becomes disoriented)<br /><br /><br /><br />but it's true too, as Yevaud pointed out, gravity and motion affect time.<br /><br />Here is a video showing the effect of motion on time:<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p80IhaBz51M&feature=related<br /><br />The same applies to proximity to mass. The stronger the gravitational field, the slower the clocks <br />register their time units.<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[yevaud]

I think he was including that gravity seems to not really play any important role at the Quantum level. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[R1]

oh. ok <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[emperor_of_localgroup]

Time again?<br />One of the biggest mystery of nature. We'll run into many cause-effect problem if we accept time as we perceive it now. My latest thoughts about time are:<br />a) Is time some form of energy? <br />b) Did time start at the biological beginning, or at the big bang? If you think for a while, you wont be able to tell the difference.<br /><br />I have no answer. I toy with these questions whenever I procrastinate. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="2" color="#ff0000"><strong>Earth is Boring</strong></font> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

ranur you are very correct,I congraluate you for the only right reply.Kip Thornes imaginary voyage to black hole landed in vicinity of black hole after earth time few billion years.

 

[vandivx]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>"Time does exist. All physical processes require cause-and-effect to operate. Without time operating as we (poorly) comprehend it, effect would appear without cause, events would operate forward, backwards, all willy-nilly."<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />you have it the other way around - time doesn't make things change in the ordered way but rather things change in ordered way and from that we form the concept of time<br /><br />time is not something that exists in some physical way so as to keep the world in order, all that exists is matter and it undergoes change at various rates thus giving rise to the concept of time and we take some particular periodic rate of change of some special matter as standard and measure up the rest of changes against it<br /><br />matter and the changes it undergoes is primary and it doesn't need time as some separately existing ordering agent, things chage as they do because of what they are and the environment they find themselves in, they can't run backwards or willy-nilly time or no time, they simply have certain definite nature which determines how they will behave without being held in check by some stearing agent called time<br /><br />vanDivX <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

In other words be scientific,Is that the essence ? Kips black hole is the deciding factor.eh,eh.

 

[Anonymous]

No, time isn't constant.<br />Einstein proved it (with his theory of relativity)!<br /><br />He proposed that time changes with the position of a being in the Universe.<br /><br />I personally feel often that sometimes time is slow and sometimes its fast. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font size="2"><p align="center"><br /><img id="a9529085-d63d-481e-9277-832ea5d58917" src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/9/2/a9529085-d63d-481e-9277-832ea5d58917.Large.gif" alt="blog post photo" /><br /><font color="#339966">Oops! this is my alien friend.</font></p><p align="center"><font color="#ff6600">╬→Ť╠╣є ’ M€ ’<br />╬→ Ðôŵņ2Ëãřŧĥ ๑<br />╬→ ЙДm€ :Varsha<br /></font></p></font></strong> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Semantics. <br /><br />Without time as a factor, everything we know about the physical world around us breaks down. Regardless of whether the concept of time is driven by what you say or what I say.<br /><br />I might add, there's no way to say what you postulate as being any more correct than what I did. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Not a question of inner life and outer life,quesion of relious matter.Here time means physical time.Dont mix up .

 

[vandivx]

"what is driving the changes we perceive and measure as time?<br />---<br /><br />energy is driving them - another phenomenon which has no separate existence of its own, that is appart from matter<br /><br />basically what exists is matter which has certain nature that dictates how it will behave in interactions with other matter (that includes interactions within itself when we talk of macroscopic matter assembly) and the rate at which changes happen (time factor) depends on energy that is expended<br /><br />energy does not exist as such (appart from matter) but is always energy of something, that is matter has energy and the two can't really be separated or isolated since that is how matter comes - in one package and 'energized' so to speak and I don't think we can ever know why existence is like that but simply have to accept it and go from there investigating it<br /><br />it is wrong perspective to take time to be a matter (its rate and direction of change) ordering agent and in the same way it would also be erroneous to take energy for some outside animating agent separate from matter and acting on it <br /><br />- matter simply comes ready made energized and we observe the changes due to this energy being expended and measure the rate at which it causes changes in matter to come about by some time standard (time measurement is nothing else but comparison of changes - we find some stable and regularly changing piece of matter like oscillating atom and measure other changes by comparing them to this chosen standard<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Is the "stuff" that drives the changes present in free space? Or is this drive existing within matter itself?...space just being a regulating factor for how fast these changes can take place? <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote> it is the second - within matter itself - but space also comes into it as ether stuff to mediate the energy acting and also as medium which is the primary location of energy, I just wo <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[vandivx]

when I agreed with the time existing within matter itself I didn't mean to imply any clock, you are locked in this paradigm - analogy with man made clocks and can't see your way out of it<br /><br />existence of matter has to be accepted as given and with it the time as one of its most basic attributes<br /><br />people I find have the biggest trouble seeing and accepting anything as given, that is as primary facts that simply have to be accepted that they are so and so and all inquiry starts from there<br /><br />concern with 'time' existence as such could be likened to such concerns as why anything exists and given it exists why it is just this way and not another and to such queries there are not and can't be any answers<br /><br />matter is simply here and it undergoes change at some rate and that is the starting point of all inquiry, energy is a concept denoting the potential for those changes and the time is another concept invented to describe the rate at which the change happens and that is that<br /><br />if I would bring in ether then I might pass the buck a bit further but the above would still in principle be valid, it would be no different from talking about energy delivered by a locomotive engine and then reducing it step by step to energy of basic constituents of matter (the atomic particles with their fields) which are the source of that energy - or else go one step further and make the seat of that energy the ether which gives rise to matter and its attendant property of energy which brings time concept along side with it per necessity <br /><br />vanDivX <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Time has nothing to do with matter.Its spacetime.There is no time as such.

 

[alokmohan]

There are queries that cant be answered because we dont know much about that.

 

[alokmohan]

What confuses?