CONTENTS
1. Nature of time
2. What causes Time?
3. Why Time slows in gravity and with motion?
4. Is time a dimension?
5. How gravity works
6. Why gravity is only attractive?
7. Acceleration and Twin paradox
8 The beautiful mechanism of length contraction?
9. What causes inertia?
10. Why speed of light remains constant?
11. Why black holes cannot have singularity?
12. Is the universal expansion accelerating or time is slowing?
13 Arrow of time
14 Summary
15 Philosophy In A Cup Of Tea
16 Links to other sites
17 Time Quotes
1. Nature of time
2. What causes Time?
3. Why Time slows in gravity and with motion?
4. Is time a dimension?
5. How gravity works
6. Why gravity is only attractive?
7. Acceleration and Twin paradox
8 The beautiful mechanism of length contraction?
9. What causes inertia?
10. Why speed of light remains constant?
11. Why black holes cannot have singularity?
12. Is the universal expansion accelerating or time is slowing?
13 Arrow of time
14 Summary
15 Philosophy In A Cup Of Tea
16 Links to other sites
17 Time Quotes
| WHAT IS TIME? WHAT CAUSES TIME? mkhan@timephysics.com |
Writer and physicist Paul Davies has called "time" Einstein’s unfinished revolution. There are many questions about the nature of time.
What is time? What causes time? Is time an emergent concept? Why time slows in gravity? Why time slows in motion? Is time a dimension?
Aristotle may have come closest to understanding time when he speculated that time may be motion. He however added that motion could
be slower or faster but not time. Aristotle did not have the privilege of knowing about Einstein’s relativity in which time also becomes amenable
to change. Similarly when Einstein was working to develop theory of general relativity and proposed the revolutionary idea that mass curves
space he did not know that the universe was expanding. This discovery by astronomer Edwin Hubble came 13 years after Einstein had
published his theory of General Relativity. Had Einstein known of this great discovery he may have incorporated these ideas into his
theories. Conceptually it is easier to derive space curvature in an expanding universe as an area of slower expansion under the influence of
gravitons.
One of the most dramatic aspects of the universe is that it is expanding and the presence of motion, forces and curved space-time
happens in the expanding space. In general relativity matter produces curvature in space-time, this concept can also be extended to moving
objects and it can be shown that moving objects can also curve space-time.
Time is possibly an emergent concept that arises secondary to the presence of motion and forces. It is proposed here that the motion
and forces are due to expansion of the universe. Slower expansion of space around large masses like earth and sun could be considered as
the cause of slower time linking time to the expansion of space. Gravity can be explained on basis of tendency of matter composed of billions
of particles orbiting at tremendous velocities to move from faster to slower time when placed in a time differential. This explains why gravity is
always attractive. This new approach towards understanding time eliminates the infinite gravity or singularity of black holes. It also shows us
that not only gravity of large masses but motion of objects also can curve space which leads to the beautiful mechanism of length
contraction. It leads to a deeper understanding of why time slows with motion and in gravity. It also provides a clear explanation of why there
cannot be a twin paradox.
This new understanding of time linking it with the expansion of space may have been already confirmed by the discovery that the universal
expansion appears to be accelerating. If time is indeed related to the expansion of space and our time is slowing down then as we make
measurements of light emitted by distant supernova (when time was faster) we will be measuring their frequency changes from our slower
time. This will give an illusion that the universal expansion is accelerating. Similarly the pioneer anomaly can be explained by slowing of our
time during the period the signal travels from earth to pioneer space craft and back. These predictions are not based on any exotic
phenomenon but on Einstein’s relativity and can be easily tested. This new approach in understanding of time, motion, and gravity could
bring about a revolution in physics.
What is time? What causes time? Is time an emergent concept? Why time slows in gravity? Why time slows in motion? Is time a dimension?
Aristotle may have come closest to understanding time when he speculated that time may be motion. He however added that motion could
be slower or faster but not time. Aristotle did not have the privilege of knowing about Einstein’s relativity in which time also becomes amenable
to change. Similarly when Einstein was working to develop theory of general relativity and proposed the revolutionary idea that mass curves
space he did not know that the universe was expanding. This discovery by astronomer Edwin Hubble came 13 years after Einstein had
published his theory of General Relativity. Had Einstein known of this great discovery he may have incorporated these ideas into his
theories. Conceptually it is easier to derive space curvature in an expanding universe as an area of slower expansion under the influence of
gravitons.
One of the most dramatic aspects of the universe is that it is expanding and the presence of motion, forces and curved space-time
happens in the expanding space. In general relativity matter produces curvature in space-time, this concept can also be extended to moving
objects and it can be shown that moving objects can also curve space-time.
Time is possibly an emergent concept that arises secondary to the presence of motion and forces. It is proposed here that the motion
and forces are due to expansion of the universe. Slower expansion of space around large masses like earth and sun could be considered as
the cause of slower time linking time to the expansion of space. Gravity can be explained on basis of tendency of matter composed of billions
of particles orbiting at tremendous velocities to move from faster to slower time when placed in a time differential. This explains why gravity is
always attractive. This new approach towards understanding time eliminates the infinite gravity or singularity of black holes. It also shows us
that not only gravity of large masses but motion of objects also can curve space which leads to the beautiful mechanism of length
contraction. It leads to a deeper understanding of why time slows with motion and in gravity. It also provides a clear explanation of why there
cannot be a twin paradox.
This new understanding of time linking it with the expansion of space may have been already confirmed by the discovery that the universal
expansion appears to be accelerating. If time is indeed related to the expansion of space and our time is slowing down then as we make
measurements of light emitted by distant supernova (when time was faster) we will be measuring their frequency changes from our slower
time. This will give an illusion that the universal expansion is accelerating. Similarly the pioneer anomaly can be explained by slowing of our
time during the period the signal travels from earth to pioneer space craft and back. These predictions are not based on any exotic
phenomenon but on Einstein’s relativity and can be easily tested. This new approach in understanding of time, motion, and gravity could
bring about a revolution in physics.
It is remarkable that the most real feeling in perception of time “the present”, cannot be measured in any units of time. Present is
duration-less, it is an infinitesimal. On the timeline both the past and the future which are seen as durations in time encroach on the
present.
duration-less, it is an infinitesimal. On the timeline both the past and the future which are seen as durations in time encroach on the
present.
More powerful than all the armies of
the world, is an idea whose time has
come.
.............Victor Hugo
the world, is an idea whose time has
come.
.............Victor Hugo
| WHAT IS TIME? |
| Rotating buckets and twin paradox reveal the significance of motion through space |
| Moving objects also curve space and then the curvature perpetuates the motion |