What is “Time” and how exactly does it work?
In: Physics
I like the Twilight Zone concept of time – it’s a train of dioramas. To travel through time, you hop off the train and walk (run?) to the car (time) you want. Like, the time stamp of my life 20 minutes ago (20 cars back) has me getting coffee. But fast forward 20 cars from now and you would see me brushing my teeth. Alternate timelines would be different trains.
This is similar to thinking of time as the 4th dimension. 1st dimension is a line – a collection of points. 2nd dimension is a plane – a collection of lines. 3rd dimension is our reality – a collection of planes. 4th dimension is time- a collection of momentary realities.
The problem with this image is that time is continuous – we don’t actually have a way to chop it into pieces. Yet? We say this second or this minute, but our starting point is kinda arbitrary. We have been able to coordinate with other people on our definition of time units by using natural phenomenon, but there is no time particle that we can count.
In my physics of space and time class (decades ago), there was a delightful image of time as a straight line going in one direction, until it reaches now – time zero. From there, it becomes a cone of possibility- do I continue sitting on the couch? Do I get up and brush my teeth? Do I hop in the car and go to the airport and board a flight to China? There is no option for me to suddenly be in China next – that event falls outside of the cone of possible events, into the area known as elsewhen.
I CAN be in China, later, but I can’t jump outside the cone to be in China now. I CAN go to Mars, but I’m gonna have to track the edge of that cone for a long time.
Not sure that answers the question, but it seemed relevant. If my professor couldn’t really give the answer to that question (and he was the editor of the Journal of Theoretical Physics, and at some point in the class smirked a bit and said, “This is MY contribution,” so I’m pretty sure he knew what he was on about), I’m not sure the answer is out there.
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