Time is so much an integral part of human life, that we have time for everything except time. Time and existence of time is taken for granted. We are born in the nick of time. Our time starts some 42 weeks before we see the light of the World. We record the time of birth and time of death both on Calendat time and clock/ wrist watch time. We enjoy happy times and find time to introspect. We have the habit of even killing time, even though we know time is money. We forget things from time to time and even with time. Time is supposed to be a great healer.Sometimes we have idle or spare time, sometimes we run short of time, Sometimes we schedule time for appointment and sometimes we failed to reach the destination in time. We complain of scarcity of time. When we do not know we hope time will tell. We desire good things to be done in time and aircraft's departing, flying and landing on time. We know time runs out fast and yet waiting at the end of a long queue we seem to find time taking its own sweet time to reach us at the head of the queue.
We schedule our programs to best utilize time. We need leisure time, bedtime , breakfast time and dinner time. Some say that any time is tea time. We distinguish between day time and night time. We dislike time consuming work and time delays. Some likes winter time but dislike summer times. Television channels want their prime time ratings to go up. We do not like time delays but wait to act when the time is ripe. Many things take time to make an impact.
We place events in chronological time and maintain records as per Calendar time. Executives want information online on real time basis. We pass time in pastimes and get worried during war times. We read about events in historical times with interest and are amazed to know that some scholars have discovered about things during pre-historic time. In arithmetic, there were sums involving time and work. In college they taught differential calculus and difference equations to deal with time dynamics. In science fiction, we travel backwards and forward in time.
If our lives are so time dependent and intertwined with time, we could perhaps allocate time to explore the concept of and independent existence of time. It is better to start with the stupid question: what is Time (not what is the time)? Does Time have an existence or is it only a construct to make living more comfortable?
The concept of Time helps us the sequence events/ happenings and future outcomes in a manner to place them in the order of their occurrence: which occurred before and which after which. Time also helps us have an idea of the distance between two events as also measure the duration of an event or happening. Thus, Kurukshetra War happened before Arjun died and after Arjun's father died, the distance between Arjun's father's death and Arjun's death was x number of years and that the the battle of Kurukshtra lasted for say 18 days. It is like a number system where the numbers are placed in a sequence of ascending/ descending order of magnitude and where the distance between two numbers are capable of being measured and distances between two different pairs of numbers can be compared. This is applicable not in the past tense, past continuous tense and past perfect tense, but also of the different categories of present and future tense.
We are herefore very particular about measuring time / time periods and time intervals. Units of measurement are small as as very large. One Planck time is the time it would take a photon travelling at the speed of light to cross a distance equal to one Planck length (1.616252(81)×10−35 meters). Theoretically, the smallest time measurement that will ever be possible is roughly 10-43 seconds (change in time less than one Planck time apart, is beyond physical measurement and detection: the smallest time interval that was directly measured was one of 12 attoseconds (12 x 10−18 seconds), about 1024 times larger than the Planck time. Planck Epoch Planck epoch (or Planck era), named after Max Planck, is the earliest period of time in the history of the universe, from zero to approximately 10−43 seconds (Planck time), during which, it is believed, quantum effects of gravity were significant. Division and combination of tiem units have been in practice among ancient Indians(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_measurement). The smalest units of time is a miniscule of a currently known second while the largest is Brahma's day equivalent to 4.32 billion human years. But what we measure as time my not be really in existence: we measure change or movement and call it time!
Does Time have any real existence beyond such use to deal with past, present and future which are essentially a classification for human convenience. Would Time be there when human beings did not exist? Is Time an independent component of the Universe as Energy-Matter is or it is just another derivative of the phenomenon called Energy-Matter? We have discussed in the previous post, how Space is a mere derivative of Energy: energy reduces its density to produce and expand space. This is what Big Bang theory of the creation of Universe says. The same is true of Time. Time started with the Big Bang and merely reflects the change in energy density and the consequential creation and expansion of space. That is why just like we have energy-matter equivalence a la Einstein, we have space-time as one dimension or a single spacetime contimum. Einstein showed that with electromagnemtic measurement, time and space get entangled in what is called Minowski space.
We could derive a formula following Einstein.
Time = Distance travelled by light in space divided by the square-root of energy per unit of mass. You are right. I expressed the famous E = m*c^2 in a different way. For Einstein energy per unit of mass and speed of light are constants of equal values (speed of light is nothing but a ratio of related intervals of space and time covered by light as it travels). If particles of light has to move, they should get space to move in. The interval space between which a light particle moved is nothing but a change of position. This change of position is alternatively measured in time so that one can derive a notion called speed or velocity. If there is no change, there is no time. Time disappears. Time does not have any existence of its own. It started with Big Bang and will end with Heat Death of Big Rip. What was the time before Big Bang is a meaningless question if we understand Stephen Hawkings, the greatscientist of our time.
Ultimately, we arrive at Energy as the sole element of the Universe.
But equations are equations. What is a dependent variable and which is independent often depends on our choice. So, one can if one wishes can say that energy, mass and space - all exists only in time. Without Time, nothing exists: Kaal, the Eternal Time, as per the Cosmic Myth of 200 BC, shapes the path of behaviour of all beings and non-beings in the Universe and the Universe. But for the Cosmic Myth of 2011 AD, Time is just about 14 billion years of age and was created only by the Big Bang, meaning the Big Bang was beyond Time.
By just adding Big Crunch to Big Bang, however, one can easily extend the lifetime of Time to Infinity: a never-ending repeated cycles of contraction and expansion of space along with increasing and decreasing density of energy. This means Time never ends as change never ends. Change in energy density and amount of space occurs only in Time. If change never ceases permanently, Time is Infinite just as the numbers are.
We thus go back to the Cosmic Myth of 200BC. In the five to two millennium BC, the source of all creation was traced back to the Infinite Kaal (Time) by the knowledge seekers in India: Everything exists in Time and Time exists in everything. And yes, that is the Concept of God in Sanatana Hindu Cosmology (not religion). Eternity nicked Time in the nick of time.
Still the question about Time would persist. Energy (or for that matter or latent matter was there to start with and never ceases to exist (conservation principle that nothing is lost in the Universe). Even space is not created by human beings. Time is the creation of human beings just as the numbers are. They may be uncountable infinite, but they are not fundamental to the Universe. Stars are part of the Universe but their numbers, however counted, are not part of the Universe. So time is not a fundamental and independent constituent/ ingredient/ feature of the Universe.
There are no human beings in the Mars or the Jupiter. So, there is no Number or Time in the Universe outside the Earth. Even at the time the Planet Earth was formed, there were no human beings and hence there would not have been numbers or Time. Could it not be that both the Number System and Time existed all along in the Universe just as Energy and matter and possibly Space did. Human beings only discovered them that all these existed in the Universe. Internet technology was not discovered until recently: does it mean that Internet communication did not exist in the Universe from the very beginning?
Where are the scientific answers to these questions? Can we live with opinions and hunches? For how long Time do we have to wait? Till Eternity? Or, is it that since energy, mass, space and time get entangled, the quadruplet is nothing but the same thing: there is nothing to distinguish among time, energy, mass and time!!!
We would explore these thoughts a little later.
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