Time
mkhan@timephysics.com WHAT IS TIME AND WHAT CAUSES TIME?
Australian writer and physicist Paul Davis has called time Einstein’s unfinished revolution. Einstein was first to introduce the concept of slowing of time with motion and in gravity. He was also a proponent of block universe view of time in which past present and future all coexist together laid out as a dimension on a time line. The Greek philosopher Aristotle had speculated that time may be related to motion; he however added that motion could be slower or faster but not time. Aristotle did not have the privilege of knowing about
Einstein's relativity in which time also becomes amenable to change. Similarly when Einstein published his theory of General Relativity and proposed the revolutionary idea relating time to curvature in space he did not know that the universe was expanding. This discovery by astronomer Edwin Hubble came thirteen years later.
One of the most dramatic aspects of the universe is that it is expanding and the presence of motion, forces and curved space-time happens in the expanding space.
The two main concepts of time are presentism and the block universe view of time. In presentism view of time only present is real while past and future do not exist and passage of time is just an illusion. Presentism may appear more intuitive however the block universe view is more popular among physicists and is supported by heavy weights in physics like Einstein. In block universe view time is laid out as a time-scape. This is based on theory of special relativity and an interpretation of Lorentz transformation equations called the Rietdijk–
Putnam argument. Physicist Roger Penrose advanced another variation of this argument called the Andromeda paradox. These paradoxes and anomalies arise from lack of simultaneity due to Einstein’s postulate of constancy of the speed of light in theory of special
Australian writer and physicist Paul Davis has called time Einstein’s unfinished revolution. Einstein was first to introduce the concept of slowing of time with motion and in gravity. He was also a proponent of block universe view of time in which past present and future all coexist together laid out as a dimension on a time line. The Greek philosopher Aristotle had speculated that time may be related to motion; he however added that motion could be slower or faster but not time. Aristotle did not have the privilege of knowing about
Einstein's relativity in which time also becomes amenable to change. Similarly when Einstein published his theory of General Relativity and proposed the revolutionary idea relating time to curvature in space he did not know that the universe was expanding. This discovery by astronomer Edwin Hubble came thirteen years later.
One of the most dramatic aspects of the universe is that it is expanding and the presence of motion, forces and curved space-time happens in the expanding space.
The two main concepts of time are presentism and the block universe view of time. In presentism view of time only present is real while past and future do not exist and passage of time is just an illusion. Presentism may appear more intuitive however the block universe view is more popular among physicists and is supported by heavy weights in physics like Einstein. In block universe view time is laid out as a time-scape. This is based on theory of special relativity and an interpretation of Lorentz transformation equations called the Rietdijk–
Putnam argument. Physicist Roger Penrose advanced another variation of this argument called the Andromeda paradox. These paradoxes and anomalies arise from lack of simultaneity due to Einstein’s postulate of constancy of the speed of light in theory of special