The best ordinary (What Lao Tzu would call “common”) definition of ‘time’ is that it is the measure of the interval between events.
Still, There’s no “actually is” answer because time has developed from an intuitive, subjective concept into several different technical concepts, and then there is also the intuitive level. This was characterized by J.A. Wheeler: “Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.”
Dropping names again, Wheeler mentored my mentor, the mystic mathematician Orest Bedrig.
For Wheeler, intuitively speaking, different events can be in different places but also they could be in the same place at different times. Time gave order to events at the same place.
One step further, a measure was given to time. In pre-history time was measured in days and seasons. The Egyptians introduced hours as a way of assigning work periods within a day. They used a sundial, to measure work hours.
The ancient Greeks developed many of the principles and forms of the sundial. Sundials are believed to have been introduced into Greece by Anaximander of Miletus, c. 560 BCE. According to Herodotus, Greek sundials were initially derived from their Babylonian counterparts. The Greeks were well-positioned to develop the science of sundials, having founded the science of geometry, and in particular, discovering the conic sections that are traced by a sundial nodus. The mathematician and astronomer Theodosius of Bithynia (ca. 160 BCE-ca. 100 BCE ) is said to have invented a universal sundial that could be used anywhere on Earth.
In physics, time became an independent variable in dynamical equations that had predictive power. Galileo used his pulse to discover that a pendulum has a constant period independent of its swing (for small angles) and began to use this to measure other dynamics, like the acceleration of falling objects. So in physics, there was an incentive to make more accurate clocks. But what made one clock more accurate than another? The more accurate one was the one that coordinated dynamical events with the simplest equations. You certainly didn’t want your dynamical equations to depend on the calendar, so they were written to be time translation invariant. Newton intuitively understood this and assumed that a given time applied everywhere as a label of simultaneous events.
But Maxwell’s equations and the puzzles that arose when measuring the speed of light threw a wrench into this. The puzzles were solved by Einstein who again separated the labeling of events with a time coordinate, t, from the physically significant, measurable interval between events. He famously said, “Time is what you measure with a clock.” The significance of this is that the clock measures time along the path it takes through spacetime. If two clocks take two different paths between the same two events, then in general they will indicate different intervals between those two events. This is the source of the twin paradox and the gravitational effect on time, as in the movie, “Intestellar”.
The time dilation of relativity theory should not be thought of as an effect on the clock. In relativity theory, a clock is just measuring the length of a path through spacetime. Think of one of those wheels that landscapers use to measure lawns. It measures distance along the path it’s pushed.
For a mystic and metaphysician, one’s sense of time is influenced by a number of factors in combination. These include:
· Regrets about the past,
· Expectations of the future,
· Carity concerning wants and needs,
· The ability to focus on need fulfillment quickly,
· Level of mindfulness,
· Ability to transcend discomfort,
Albert Einstein was asked to explain the abstruse theory of relativity so many times that he reportedly created a comical illustration involving a hot stove and a pretty girl. Would you please explore the provenance of this tale?
Quote Investigator: The earliest evidence located by QI was printed in “The New York Times” in March 1929. The phrase “nice girl’ was used instead of “pretty girl”.
Numerous anecdotes were circulated concerning Einstein girl secretary. She was bothered by inquisitive interviewers, who wanted to know what relativity really meant. She asked her boss, and Einstein supposedly answered.
“When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.”
In fact, the quotation was not directly from Einstein. Indeed, a reporter simply noted that the tale was being circulated. Yet, the vivid comparison was very popular and many variants evolved in the following years. Einstein was still based in Germany in 1929, so earlier instances of the anecdote may have been published in German.
Now, since we have been exploring Wittgenstein let me add this. On the basis of historical and textual evidence, it seems that Wittgenstein was actually influenced by Einstein's theory of relativity and, (ii) the similarity of Einstein's relativity theory helps to illuminate some aspects of Wittgenstein's work. Wittgenstein speaks approvingly of Einstein's relativity theory and there are many quotations embedded in Wittgenstein's texts. The profound connection between Wittgenstein and relativity theory concerns not only Wittgenstein's earlier work but also his later concerning the theme of rule-following, and language.
So, back to earlier ideas concerning time?
Take any event – for example, sunrise. The sun appears to rise in the east, travels across the sky, and sets in the west – only to rise again – so there is an interval between two sunrises during which Earth makes one full rotation on its axis.
Sometime in the distant past, a need arose to sequence and compare events in daily life; so, it was the Egyptians who divided the duration of one sunrise to the next - into 86,400 equal parts and called each part a ‘second’. Later, the minutes and hours were added – 60 of these seconds was a minute, and 60 minutes made one hour so there were 24 hours in a day. All these are ‘units’ of time. The fundamental unit of time is the second.
This story is an excerpt from my course “The Mystic’s Academy”
©Lewis Harrison, all rights reserved.
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About the author: Lewis Harrison, is a public intellectual and has been mentoring and coaching visionaries, world-class athletes, thought leaders, and individuals seeking to become more effective, efficient, productive, and self-aware for over half a century. The former host of an NPR-affiliated radio show, he is the author of over twenty best-selling books on self-improvement, self-help, personal transformation, and human potential, and has created many classes, courses, and seminars on these subjects
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