How do you define Time?

When we think of time we tend to think of the ways in which we measure the passing of time, such as a clock or watch, or perhaps a measured interval of time such as an hour or minute, but not of time itself. So what is time? Exactly what is it that we are measuring?

have fun?

 

time is time... thats simple

 

Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects.

Time has been a major subject of religion, philosophy, and science, but defining it in a non-controversial manner applicable to all fields of study has consistently eluded the greatest scholars.

Time is one of the seven fundamental physical quantities in the International System of Units. Time is used to define other quantities — such as velocity — so defining time in terms of such quantities would result in circularity of definition.

An operational definition of time, wherein one says that observing a certain number of repetitions of one or another standard cyclical event (such as the passage of a free-swinging pendulum) constitutes one standard unit such as the second, is highly useful in the conduct of both advanced experiments and everyday affairs of life.

The operational definition leaves aside the question whether there is something called time, apart from the counting activity just mentioned, that flows and that can be measured. Investigations of a single continuum called spacetime bring questions about space into questions about time, questions that have their roots in the works of early students of natural philosophy.

Among prominent philosophers, there are two distinct viewpoints on time. One view is that time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence. Sir Isaac Newton subscribed to this realist view, and hence it is sometimes referred to as Newtonian time.

Time travel, in this view, becomes a possibility as other "times" persist like frames of a film strip, spread out across the time line. The opposing view is that time does not refer to any kind of "container" that events and objects "move through", nor to any entity that "flows", but that it is instead part of a fundamental intellectual structure (together with space and number) within which humans sequence and compare events. This second view, in the tradition of Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant,[6][7] holds that time is neither an event nor a thing, and thus is not itself measurable nor can it be travelled.

Temporal measurement has occupied scientists and technologists, and was a prime motivation in navigation and astronomy. Periodic events and periodic motion have long served as standards for units of time. Examples include the apparent motion of the sun across the sky, the phases of the moon, the swing of a pendulum, and the beat of a heart. Currently, the international unit of time, the second, is defined in terms of radiation emitted by caesium atoms (see below). Time is also of significant social importance, having economic value ("time is money") as well as personal value, due to an awareness of the limited time in each day and in human life spans.

Hell yeah Wikipedia!

 

Time pasts slower when im arround ya <3

 

Time is Gold!

 

@nosf , ty awesome answer ^^

 

uhm ....

 

I define it with two words: Tick and Tock.

 

time is the 4th dimension. go take university physics and ull learn all about it. Einstein's theory of relativity, you go indepth and by the end of the class ull be like wtf just happened?

 

time is the countdown till u die measure it in heartbeats ^^

was really tempted to post this lol

 

Which University? xD Anyway, I know something about that, about the four dimensions (x,y,z,time) and that in theory they can be modified. Though I don't believe humanity will ever be able to travel in the past or future with a machine.

 

i learned about it , i just wanted to know what others opinion about it is ^^

 

umm i live in Canada, u guys r prob in US i dunno >.<!

i was just looking at this, this is how a cube is believed to look like in 4-d Space. thats just wack. :w00t:

 

if this is a race im betting on the speed of light ur too slow ^^

 

You can't know how it would look in 4D, I doubt it would look like that. Can't see a 4D object in 3D, you know? As you can't see 3D in 2D.

 

when was the last time u were 2D (besides the time when u got rolled over by a steamroller ^^)

lolz

 

Philosphers have great difficulty defining this term even I won't even bother trying XD

 

time is relative

when u touch a hot pan, a second feels like an hour
when u touch a hot woman, an hour feels like a second

^^

 

/me slaps him
Use your brain!

 

hehe you never know, its "believed" to look like that but no1 can be 100% sure. And you never know, the laws that apply in 3d space might not apply in 4d so it could be possible to view it like that. 4d space is a mysterious concept, who knows what humankind will be able to reach if they truly understood the fourth dimension.yummmm hope i live to see that , probably not tho. Q.Q