By what mechanism does time move forward?

[Code-Monkey]

Just out of curiousity, does anyone have any ideas by what mechanism time moves forward? How does time move from 11:45 to 11:45 and 1 time unit later?

 

[Eudaimonist]

Just out of curiousity, does anyone have any ideas by what mechanism time moves forward? How does time move from 11:45 to 11:45 and 1 time unit later?

Mechanism? Not a mechanism as such, but I'd say that it is due to what we may refer to as "the law of identity". In other words, it is in the nature of entities to change, and that's why they do. I don't think one can answer in a more fundamental way than this.

 

[atheist88]

Just out of curiousity, does anyone have any ideas by what mechanism time moves forward? How does time move from 11:45 to 11:45 and 1 time unit later?

Albert Einstein defined time this way:
"Two events taking place at the points A and B of a system K are simultaneous if they appear at the same instant when observed from the middle point, M, of the interval AB. Time is then defined as the ensemble of the indications of similar clocks, at rest relatively to K, which register the same simultaneously."

An event is just some occurance at an arbitrary time. Time is a man-made construct to compare the length between events or the length of an event. In other words, how many times can a pendulum swing back and forth between event 1 and event 2. Once we understood that such a measurement was useful we had to agree on some standard of measurement by using things that occur at regular intevals in nature (such as periodic motion). Radiation also occurs at regular intervals and this is what we chose as our standard. Today we define a second as 9,192,631,770 cycles of the transition between two energy levels of the ground state of 133 Caesium.


So your real question is why do pendulums swing at regular intervals? Or why do electrons change energy levels at regular intervals?

To make matters more complicated, the rate at which electrons transition between energy levels change according to the atoms speed and/or its location in a gravity field.

 

[Born_to_Lose_Live_to_Win]

Just out of curiousity, does anyone have any ideas by what mechanism time moves forward? How does time move from 11:45 to 11:45 and 1 time unit later?

Change.

How do I define change?

Through examples:
Beating of the heart--->The heart beats, the heart beats again, there is silence in between. If there was no change, the one beat does not begin, and does not end.

Every example I take involves change.

Time is a unit of measuring change.

 

[Code-Monkey]

Change.

Every example I take involves change.

Time is a unit of measuring change.

So you would say that at the center of the universe if there is no mass or energy at that place (ie, it's a vacuum) then time does not exist there? Or you would also suggest that if somehow something is not changing, then it is timeless?

 

[Code-Monkey]

Change.

How do I define change?

Through examples:
Beating of the heart--->The heart beats, the heart beats again, there is silence in between. If there was no change, the one beat does not begin, and does not end.

Every example I take involves change.

Time is a unit of measuring change.

Wait... thought of something else. Are you saying time move forward because of change? How can something change without time? Which logically comes first, time or change?

 

[Born_to_Lose_Live_to_Win]

So you would say that at the center of the universe if there is no mass or energy at that place (ie, it's a vacuum) then time does not exist there?

'Center of the Universe'??

Or you would also suggest that if somehow something is not changing, then it is timeless?

I would say that, yeah. But I didn't perceive it, or in fact, i can't perceive it.

 

[Born_to_Lose_Live_to_Win]

Wait... thought of something else. Are you saying time move forward because of change? How can something change without time? Which logically comes first, time or change?

Time is a means of measuring change.

I ran from point A to B.

My friend ran from point A to B.

How fast did I run compared to my friend? Time provides me the answer.

But to answer your question, I really don't know.

That question can be asked about everything.

 

[atheist88]

If you have space, you have time. Time and space are linked. If something is not changing, time simply tells us how long it has been since we started observing its unchanging state. Although I'm not aware of anything that does not change.

However, the RATE of time can be vastly different.

 

[Merlin]

Why assume time moves?
What is your reference point?

 

[Code-Monkey]

If you have space, you have time. Time and space are linked. If something is not changing, time simply tells us how long it has been since we started observing its unchanging state. Although I'm not aware of anything that does not change.

However, the RATE of time can be vastly different.

Do facts change? If 2+2=4, would that ever change? Is logic contained within time or is logic timeless?

 

[Born_to_Lose_Live_to_Win]

Do facts change? If 2+2=4, would that ever change? Is logic contained within time or is logic timeless?

2+2 = 4 is a mathematical fact.

It doesn't have any meaning outside mathematics. As far as math is concerned '2+2 = 4' cannot change.

Same goes for logic.

They cannot be used as valid examples for things that are changeless. In fact, in the changeless, there cannot be things, but there can only be 'the changeless'.

 

[quatona]

Just out of curiousity, does anyone have any ideas by what mechanism time moves forward? How does time move from 11:45 to 11:45 and 1 time unit later?

I don´t know that time moves forward. Time is the measurement of processes. If anything, time is the way we experience things to move forward (or to change). But not even that is a completely accurate description, I´m afraid.
Just like space doesn´t move, but is the concept by which we identify movements.

 

[Blackmarch]

Just out of curiousity, does anyone have any ideas by what mechanism time moves forward? How does time move from 11:45 to 11:45 and 1 time unit later?

Whoever can figure that out, and then prove it willl likely become very rich..

But as for me, no ideas are coming.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Whoever can figure that out, and then prove it willl likely become very rich..

I suspect it has to do with a hamster and a giant wheel.

 

[Blackmarch]

I suspect it has to do with a hamster and a giant wheel.

Well there's half the work... of course the tough stuff is the other half that has to be done.

LoL


Is the hamster named Boo?

 

[Mistadobalina]

I agree with the above posters who explained time as the nature of things to change. To my mind, if there is no change, there is no time.

 

[TLFM]

Just out of curiousity, does anyone have any ideas by what mechanism time moves forward? How does time move from 11:45 to 11:45 and 1 time unit later?

I am just basing this in my under-educated understanding, but I have always thought that matter and energy move through time, as opposed to time moving forward. This is to say that time would be a constant and unchanging dimension through which the physical dimensions move.

 

[Merlin]

Mine runs off of a battery.
(I forget to wind every day.)

 

[GreenDragon]

When you are walking down the street you have control of your legs, right? You can choose to slow down, run, or just fall on your face. Your brain controls your muscles and the change in speed is relatively easy. Changing your speed through time is not so easy. The only way we know how right now is to travel very fast through space. You can't conciously slow your speed through time.

Maybe entropy defines time?