What is “Time” and how exactly does it work?
In: Physics
To summarize all of the other answers–we don’t really know. We don’t really know if time even really exists. We think it does, but there are some scientists the believe that it’s just an illusion and does actually exist, even if they aren’t a majority.
There are lots of ideas, many of which equally make sense with the evidence, but nothing really solid. All we have are guesses and a few basic things that we can prove that still don’t answer either of your questions.
First, disclaimer: I’m not a physicist, but spent some time (hehe) talking with them. One of the first things they tell you is that time is relative, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The rest of my answer will be therefore my own interpretation of time, what it is and how it works.
Time as such doesn’t really exist. It’s always there and doesn’t care about you. The only function of time is, that it allows things to move. You can move through your surroundings, and in order for you to do so, things have to change.
For example, you make a step forward, and the air in front of you moves away. Your body cells moved into this space, right? All of this to happen, needed time.
Take a photograph or a film. Photograph doesn’t have the time dimension, so things don’t change there, they don’t move. Film does carry that dimension, so you can move on film.
If you took the time away from our existence, you literally wouldn’t be able to move, think, or basically even exist. How could you, if literally nothing ever moved? You don’t have the space available for that.. Maybe place, yes, but on this note now time suddenly becomes a spatial dimension, and since there is no time to apply change, you can’t.
Consider this: imagine if there was a chance that literally everything happens at the same time. Like those “parallel universes” theories go. In every one of them, something happens, so it’s like every one of these universes have every single possible outcome. In the infinite numbers of them you died right now for one reason or another. Whatever. Now let’s narrow this down to the ones that are the same as your current universe, with imperceptible changes. Imagine that you going through your doors you would walk into one of those universes and you wouldn’t even know, because it’s so similar. Maybe you would walk back into your current one, because they would still be so similar. There can be only one or two atoms of difference… You, in fact, move through the differences of reality, that’s always there available. Things can only change because they.. Can. You can put the glass in the table, so you do that. There is space for this. And time. That’s almost how time works.
Not all spaces are created equal, neither are all seconds.. But that’s for when you become ELI11.
If distance is the measurement between two different points, then time is a measurement of the duration between two different moments.
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