Time, it's direction, and how it behaves.

[marharth]

Still have no clue what you are talking about.

 

Is there any evidence that coordinate systems link dimensions?

[Dragonspyre]

By coordinate systems, I mean that each of the dimensions we know are spatial, and have coordinates.

 

There are the coordinates for (X,Y,Z) for the points of the Sphere (Or whatever other object you want) to define shape. Those are separate from the X coordinate used what point in the tube (Or traced outline projected into 3D if a spherical object is not the reference) to define its location in time.

[Quetzlsacatanango]

Dragonspyre-

What you are describing sounds like a nice way to think of time but is not very useful to help visualize what the universe is like if in fact time is only a byproduct of our perceptions.

[Tidus44]

Time is measured by atomic decay? Actually, quantum theory suggests decay is a random process and thus impossible to accurately predict. Decay is only presumed to be a constant over time (an exponential actually); and thus can be used mathematically to measure a span of time, but it isn’t time and it doesn’t measure time, it measures energy release over time in theory. But it doesn't prove time exists.

As for the short time/long time suggestion – that only means time is relative and subjective - which isn't too bad a thought, but it doesn't prove time exists.

The 4th dimension – again a means to measure something (spacetime) as an attempt to explain something that isn’t fully understood. It’s an accepted way of doing something, at least til some better (or more accepted) way comes along.

 

The past and the future do not exist, cannot be measured, has no direction and no behaviour. As marharth says, only the present exists. And really, not everyone is sure about that.

[AliasTheory]

"So it goes."

[SubjectProphet]

Not trying to be a troll or anything but "time" is a word for what passes by. Humans needed to explain the events that go by somehow.

[Marxist ßastard]

Finally, we come to Intrepede (intrepid? The internet holds no way to spell it, lol). Intrepede, known by Quantum Scientists and the second law of Thermodynamics, is the force that gives the universe chaos... Now, according to Intrepede, the universe gets more unstable as the passage of time increases, which means the universe today is more organized than it will be billions of years from now, and was more organized than it is today way back during the Big Bang. So, add this in with the Chaos Theory, and time has a funny way of existing. Why? Well, this means what if we live in a universe of chaos, then we need a universe that isn't chaotic to balance things out.

A one-pager on entropy and the second law of thermodynamics:

 

http://i.imgur.com/rGnwx.png

 

And that's really all there is to it. Entropy and the second law of thermodynamics have nothing to do with an "unstable universe" seeking to "balance out" chaos. Rather, entropy is just a number describing how many ways (microstates) a system can configure itself to reach a particular set (macrostate) of measured variables. And the second law of thermodynamics just states that a large, closed system will never arrive at a macrostate with lower entropy because there are so many more ways to increase entropy than to decrease it.

 

Time is measured by atomic decay? Actually, quantum theory suggests decay is a random process and thus impossible to accurately predict.

A single atom undergoing radioactive decay is stochastic, sure. But atomic nuclei also exhibit unique resonance frequencies. Get some cesium-133, find the frequency which induces resonance, and then divide it by 9,192,631,770 – that gives you a sine wave which peaks exactly once per second. This is how an atomic clock works.

[Sync182]

So since when was time a "tube?"

 

Not really following the connection between the third dimension and time being the forth dimension.

 

A dimension is anything we can move around in.

 

We move up and down (Z-axis), back and forth (Y-axis), and side to side (X-axis). 3 dimensions of length, width, height.

 

We also travel in time. The fact that, thus far, our journey through time is uni-directional and linear (as well as being completely beyond our ability to control) is irrelevant. There's your 4th dimension.

 

The presence of time is demonstrated by the simple fact that things decay.

 

The use of the term "time" is a human thing based upon the need to label and understand.

Edited March 20, 2012 by Sync182

[marharth]

I see what you mean, but are you ever actually moving in time?

 

The way I see it everything you live in is always the present. The past is memories and the future does not exist yet.

[Tidus44]

But atomic nuclei also exhibit unique resonance frequencies. Get some cesium-133, find the frequency which induces resonance, and then divide it by 9,192,631,770 – that gives you a sine wave which peaks exactly once per second. This is how an atomic clock works.

 

So you’re saying atomic resonance is atomic decay? That’s a new one on me, but regardless, a number of atoms can be made to resonate at a specific frequency by adding or subtracting energy to gain a means of measurement.

Considering the first atomic clocks were built in the 1950’s – one must consider what was used to measure time prior to these “accurate” atomic clocks. The people who built these clocks made the elements resonate so they would approximate what was considered to be a second of time based upon some hugely inaccurate measurement used in the past. In other words, they decided what made a second of time and manufactured (ie: manipulated) a means to create it in order to measure it.

 

But, again regardless of what they did, it doesn’t prove time has a direction or a behaviour. Simply, everything exists in the “present” and the past and the future are simply a made up explanation and do not exist.