Since this is I’m gonna explain my question the same way.
Imagine there is a time-hating wizard who magically removes all time-keeping instruments like atomic clocks, phones and watches, so there is no way of knowing the time right now. If then we were asked to ‘bring back’ the old time that we used (e.g. so that we start again measuring 12:00 in London exactly when it was 12:00 in London before the wizard) could this be done? Is there something physical constant (like kg or meter) that determines what time of day it is? Or, did someone just say “we start measuring time from now, and I say that it is exactly 14:32…”?
Also, if there is this constant that allows us to know exactly when a certain time is, doesn’t that mean we don’t need atomic clocks and can just compare ourselves to this constant? Idk what this would be but perhaps when the sun is absolutely highest in the sky somewhere?
In: 40
So there are 3 things to consider.
Time and time measurement. There is no objective time. There is a difference between time and measures of time. Think of it this way, it is possible to measure the height of a person. To do so, there needs to be a measure of height – meters, centimeters, feet and inches etc. But does “height” exist? It is merely a measure assigned to a person.
Time measurement. In modern times, the standard for time measurement is the count of the vibrations of a certain atom. A second in time is defined (by humans). This measure is universal so, as long as the right atom is measured and a counter available, it is possible to figure out what one “second” is.
Reference time. This is the division of passing time into things like days, weeks, months, dates. This is also human created and the nearly universally agreed upon major division is the day because there is a very obvious noon (sun overhead, short shadow) that is common to anyone on earth. It is very easy to measure the difference between one noon and the next. Other things like the period of a year are also observable, if we use telescopes. But the other references like month, day, year (2022AD, lunar etc) are not. If this knowledge were erased from everyone, there would be no way to recover it. It would be guesswork.
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