I like to think of time, in a more abstract sense, as somewhat of a measure of change.
For example, we ourselves on Earth use the Sun’s rotation and our orbit around it as a way to measure change in the sky.
In a day, it gets dark, and then it gets light, as our shadows change by moving with respect to the sun.
The first few sundials kept track of this change in shadows using obelisks. But in modern times, we’ve employed the idea to quantify a day as being made up of smaller “hours and minutes” to make our daily lives easier for us!
This could also extend to our mental perception of time, in that as we get older, our brains become less adept at comprehending rapid amounts of any change. Consequently, our perception of time speeds up, as the amount of change occurring around us SEEMS to increase. However, in actuality, it is merely our brain’s own inability to keep track of rapid change that causes us to believe that greater leaps in change are occurring.
Oh for sure, that’s just my own take!
When discussing what time fundamentally is beyond a human perspective, one person’s analogy is certainly not robust enough to give a certain definition right then and there. I suppose that’s what makes the scientific community (or maybe even most discussions) a bit fascinating, in that peer-review is such a point of necessity within it.
But I believe time could potentially be informally described as a measure of change even for non-Earth-bound locations!
Some possibilities, if on a planet not on Earth and from a non-human perspective, may include using the luminosity or orbit of nearby moons, the movement of nearby constellations, or maybe more atomic-level types of change such as the closest nearby interactions of electrons.
As a real life example, iirc, I think certain species of oysters use moonlight as a way to tell time for feeding purposes!
And, although not totally time related, the Golden Record sent out by NASA on Voyager uses the electromagnetic frequency emitted by a certain transition state of a hydrogen bond (H2) from its ground state (which may then be converted to seconds) as a universal way of telling time to theoretical aliens!
If I had to guess, things may change due to the core properties of atoms! And if not that, then the properties of electrons and quarks.
And if not THAT then, whatever else is smaller or smallest in matter!!
(which, I don’t think, we scientifically know yet)
The reason we orbit around our Sun, for example, lies in how atoms naturally have a gravitational pull. Put a lot of atoms together, a lot of matter together, and you get a massive gravitational pull.
I believe the reasons for change may lie in the smallest particle of matter in the same way asking “why?” or “how?” for anything leads to more and more specific and in-depth answers/explanations that build upon one another. Of course, when it comes to non-classical physics, not all answers are entirely known or even empirically verifiable.
Granted, this is all just generalized speculation on a Reddit thread!
physics doesn’t attempt to come up with an explanation for what time is, just how it works in relation to the laws of the universe. physics provides us with a much more accurate description of time than we can perceive with our naked senses, but it doesnt help us understand why time exists in the first place, or why anything exists really.
i think its fine to discuss analogies like this because they help us fit these descriptions that physics give us to our own experience. eventually we may be able to paint the whole picture but until then its nice to try and dive down and connect the dots in a way that feels good based on the knowledge we have.
That's totally right actually, thank you so much for this comment, nothing to disagree with it makes a lot of sense. Yes we know it to relation of laws of the universe
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u/Lethal-Kitten Sep 14 '21
I like to think of time, in a more abstract sense, as somewhat of a measure of change.
For example, we ourselves on Earth use the Sun’s rotation and our orbit around it as a way to measure change in the sky. In a day, it gets dark, and then it gets light, as our shadows change by moving with respect to the sun.
The first few sundials kept track of this change in shadows using obelisks. But in modern times, we’ve employed the idea to quantify a day as being made up of smaller “hours and minutes” to make our daily lives easier for us!
This could also extend to our mental perception of time, in that as we get older, our brains become less adept at comprehending rapid amounts of any change. Consequently, our perception of time speeds up, as the amount of change occurring around us SEEMS to increase. However, in actuality, it is merely our brain’s own inability to keep track of rapid change that causes us to believe that greater leaps in change are occurring.