On the Origin and Nature of Time

Abstract: According to Albert Einstein, everything is relative. In this short paper, I will evolve a rather daring and at first glance surrealistic thesis: time is relative and, just as space, multidimensional and curved! So this could induce the so-called end of linear time, as suggested by many ancient prophecies, both from the West and the East.

TOC
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Scientific practice ................................................................................................................ 2 On the nature of time .......................................................................................................... 3 On the invention of time .................................................................................................. 5 On the relativity of time .................................................................................................... 15 On time being curved ........................................................................................................ 16 MKSA revised .................................................................................................................. 16 On the personality of Albert Einstein ............................................................................... 17 Contact .............................................................................................................................. 17

Scientific practice

In all sciences, two principles prevail: Qualification: describe the subjects of study with a clear and unambiguous definition. The simpler, the better. Quantification: to measure is to know. This measurement is expressed with a number followed by a unit of measurement1. o Distances are expressed as a number followed by a unit appropriate to the scale of things: meter, kilometer, yard, mile, nautical mile, Angstrom, lightyear with fixed exchange rates among all these units. o Weight is expressed in kilogram, ton, milligram, pound, stone o Time is expressed in seconds, hours, days, years, centuries, millennia o Electrical current is expressed in Ampere, electrical charge in Coulomb

This has led to the following basic ISO standard units: MKSA (1946). M: Meter for distance K: Kilogram for mass S: Second for time A: Ampere for electrical current

In 1954 2 units were added K: Kelvin for temperature Cd: Candela for the intensity of light

All other units of measurement in physics are derived from these 6 units. I think this needs a revision, especially for Second and Ampere, as these are derived units themselves.

What are, according to your own judgment, the units of measurement for profit or cash flow of a company, economic growth of the GNP or GDP, and the balance of trade of a country?

On the nature of time

Someone once asked Albert Einstein What is time? Alberts answer was rather simplistic: Time is that what is measured by a clock! Maybe he didnt give it a second thought. But what if a clock was not yet invented? Does something that cannot be measured really exist? Or what if you throw away your watch, as Peter Fonda did at the beginning of the cult film Easy Rider of the late 1960s - also a period of social turmoil and change, but also of the Summer of Love2. Does time then stops to exist? Scientists, engineers and even economists tend to present time as a horizontal linear axis, with one or more items as vertical axis, as in the following two diagrams:

Inflation and money growth per decade (in %) 180 165 150 135 120 105 90 75 60 45 30 15 0 -15 -30 -45 1750 1770 1790 1810 1830 1850 1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 Time Note the increasing trend of the peaks since the 1930s.

180 165 150 135 120 105 90 75 60 45 30 15 0 -15 -30 -45 Moneygrowth Inflation

From the book The Great Depression of 1990, written by Ravi Batra

Venusians among us Earthians? Could the film The Adjustment Bureau be more than fiction?

Value of the US. Dollar 1790-1978. (In terms to buy basic raw materials) Reciprocal of Wholesale Price index, 1910-14 = 100, Logarithmic scale in cent

From the book The Warmongers, written by Howard Katz.

(The figure is rather obscure, so I suggest you to buy The Warmongers. One day it will be mandatory reading for students at high school.)

The figure traces the value of the United States dollar since its adoption by the Continental Congress in the 1780s. Study of this chart suggests that every time a sharp depreciation of the currency occurs (e.g.: 1812, 1861, 1917, 1942, 1966), we have a war, and every time a major war breaks out, we have a significant depreciation of the currency. Howard Katz: The Warmongers, p 3. But is a horizontal and linear representation of time always that appropriate? What about seasonal influences, for example? Sometimes a circular (curved) presentation of time gives us a better idea of what is going on, like the diagram below:

It depicts the contracting spiral of the world trade month by month during the 1930s, leading to the Second World War. From the book This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, written by the Professors Reinhart and Rogoff. Just replace 1929 with 2008. Rather revealing and scaring, isnt it?

On the invention of time

Galilee devised the formula for the swinging of a pendulum by observing the swinging of a chandelier in a church without having a clock, as the mechanical clock was not yet invented3. In ancient civilizations, the sages measured time via the observation of the sky: they carefully took notion of the movement of the celestial bodies, the fixed stars and the planets. This was important for the agriculture or the migration to a summer or winter residence. For this purpose, they even constructed huge buildings and shrines: pyramids in Egypt and Mexico, Stonehenge in England Many of these mysterious constructions still remain until these

Although, in ancient Greece, there were already hydraulic clocks: time was measured by the movement of a liquid through a system of tubes and reservoirs.

days, and are now just touristic attractions for most of the people, as most people now read the time of the day and the time of the year from their Smartphone or iPod. The most visible celestial body, with also the greatest influence on life on Earth, is the Sun: photosynthesis is the basis of food production, ergo the basis of life and survival. Due to the rotation of the Earth around its axis, the Sun rises in the morning, culminates at noon, sets in the evening, and disappears completely during the night, with midnight as the opposite of noon. The daytime was measured with a sundial, and thus was clearly local and thus relative. For one reason or another, this cycle was divided in 12 hours day and 12 hours night. Maybe this duodecimal arrangement was chosen based on the observation that we have a dozen phalanges on each hand and that we have two hands? So, contrary to common practice, we can represent the time of a day with this vertical downward axis:

Every little arrow represents one hour, there are 24 of them in a row per day. We could also represent this in a circular way: as a two-dimensional clock.

The second most visible celestial body is the Moon. The Moon turns around the Earth in about 28 days, with four important phases: new Moon, the first quarter, full Moon, and the last quarter. This was the origin of the division of time in weeks of 7 days, as is demonstrated by adding a horizontal week axis to the diagram above.

This seems to be very similar to a page in your agenda, doesnt it? Maybe this is another indication that time is at least two-dimensional? The names of the days in the week were derived from the visible Moon, the visible planets of those days, and the Sun. English Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday French lundi mardi mercredi jeudi vendredi samedi dimanche "Planet" Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus Saturn (Sun)

The link with the Sun has been broken in French, but Sunday was called Dies Solis in Latin (day of the sun).

The common explanation is that the seven-day week was established as imperial calendar in the late Roman Empire4 and furthered by the Christian church for historical reasons. The British Empire used the seven-day week and spread it worldwide. Today, the seven-day week is enforced by global business and media schedules, especially television and banking: modern times, mankind and time spinning in function of profit making!).

By the way, the Moon does not rotates around it axis, just as the Earth and all other planets do, but always faces the same hemisphere towards the Earth. It is as if She always admires our beautiful Blue Planet Earth.

For Real: An album of Jimi Hendrix that I found in the Virgin Record shop in London somewhere in the 1970s This Moon cycle has also a profound impact on life on Earth: the female reproduction cycle. But this is not yet the end of the story. The Earth and the Moon have a common center of gravity: the barycenter. And it is this barycenter of the Earth and the Moon together - not as individual celestial bodies but as one dynamic system - that follows an elliptical orbit around the Sun. As the Moon orbits the Earth, this barycenter always changes position in time in a predictable and calculable way. This is the reason why the culmination of the Sun is not
In ancient Egypt and China, a week consisted of 10 days, for the Etruscans, a week counted 8 days. The Celts of the British Isles had a 9-day week. For more examples: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week.
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exactly at 12h00: there is a difference of some seconds and even minutes. This is also the reason why dedicated sailors and navigators, abhorring military controlled GPS and stubbornly adhering to sextant and chronometer for their dead reckoning, invest every year in a nautical almanac: they know that time is not absolute, but relative, relative to the movements of the celestial bodies. This movement of the Earth-Moon system around the Sun constitutes the 12 months of the year and the seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter. This makes your agenda for this year 2012, the previous years and the years to come complete: time is clearly three-dimensional, at least!

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Calendar for 2012

janvier lu ma me je ve sa di 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 6 7 fvrier lu ma me je ve sa di 1 8 2 3 4 5 5 6 7 mars lu ma me je ve sa di 1 8 2 3 4

9 10 11 12

9 10 11

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1: 9: 16: avril lu ma me je ve sa di 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 23: 31:

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

7:

14: mai

21:

1:

8:

15: juin

22:

30:

lu ma me je ve sa di 1 7 8 2 3 4 5 6

lu ma me je ve sa di 1 4 5 6 7 8 2 3

9 10 11 12 13

9 10

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 6: 13: 21: juillet lu ma me je ve sa di 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 29:

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

6:

12:

21: aot

28:

4:

11:

19:

27:

septembre lu ma me je ve sa di 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 9

lu ma me je ve sa di 1 6 7 8 2 3 4 5

9 10 11 12

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 3: 11: 19: octobre lu ma me je ve sa di 1 8 2 9 3 4 5 6 7 26: 2:

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

9:

17:

24:

31:

8:

16:

22:

30:

novembre lu ma me je ve sa di 1 5 6 7 8 2 3 4 3 4

dcembre lu ma me je ve sa di 1 5 6 7 8 2 9

10 11 12 13 14

9 10 11

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

8:

15:

22:

29:

7:

13:

20:

28:

6:

13:

20:

28:

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But this is not yet the end of the story. Something from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac.

The Earth in its orbit around the Sun causes the Sun to appear on the celestial sphere moving over the ecliptic (red), which is tilted with respect to the equator (blue-white). In both astrology and historical astronomy, the zodiac (Greek: , zdiakos) is a circle of twelve 30 divisions of celestial longitude that are centered upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The paths of the Moon and visible planets also remain close to the ecliptic, within the belt of the zodiac, which extends 8-9 north or south of the ecliptic, as measured in celestial latitude. Historically, these twelve divisions are called signs. Essentially, the zodiac is a celestial coordinate system, or more specifically an ecliptic coordinate system, which takes the ecliptic as the origin of latitude, and the position of the sun at vernal equinox as the origin of longitude. The Tropical zodiac (of Mesopotamian origin) is divided by the intersections of the ecliptic and equator, which shifts in relation to the backdrop of fixed stars at a rate of 1 every 72 years, creating the phenomenon known as precession of the equinoxes. There is a regular movement of the axis of the Earth: the North Pole axis describes a cone movement in about 25,920 years (72 years per degree * 30 degrees per sign = 2,160 years per sign. 2,160 years per sign * 12 signs = 25,920 years). Very ancient Egypt was in the sign of Leo (the Sphinx head was originally that of a lion, later it was changed to that of a Pharaoh), in the days of Moses, there was the transition from Taurus to Aries , in the days of Jesus the transition from Aries to Pisces , and now we are heading for the Age of Aquarius . Time to let your hair grow, or learn how to handle one of these:

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Richard Bransons underwater plane (drawing)

An underwater scooter (for real!)

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Or a thing like this one

In order to pay a visit to an

In the Sun! We would be so happy you and me No one there to tell us what to do I'd like to be under the sea In an octopuses' garden with you. Ringo Starr, The Beatles 14

On the relativity of time

In our solar system, each planet has its own rotation speed around its axis and its own orbital speed around the Sun. Suppose that you were living on another planet, would your perception of time be the same as here on Earth? Clearly, time is relative to the planet you live on, and even on the place on that planet! Something from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second The second (symbol: s) is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) and is also a unit of time in other systems of measurement (abbreviated s or sec). Between 1000 (when al-Biruni first used seconds) and 1960, the second was defined as 1/86,400 of a mean solar day (that definition still applies in some astronomical and legal contexts). Between 1960 and 1967, it was defined in terms of the period of the Earth's orbit around the Sun in 1900, but it is now defined more precisely in atomic terms. Seconds may be measured using mechanical, electric or atomic clocks. 19th- and 20th-century astronomical observations revealed that the mean solar day is slowly but measurably lengthening and the length of a tropical year is not entirely predictable either; thus the sunearth motion is no longer considered a suitable basis for definition. With the advent of atomic clocks, it became feasible to define the second based on fundamental properties of nature. Since 1967, the second has been defined to be the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom. And even this is not enough to measure time accurately! Every couple of years, the atomic clocks have to be adjusted by adding a second.

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On time being curved

MKSA revised

Clearly, time is derived from the observation of movements, more specific the relative periodic movements of celestial bodies as observed from the Earth, or of movements at the atomic level. The unit of periodic movement is Hertz (Hz), cycles per second: time is the inversion of movement! Also Ampere, the unit to measure electrical current, is not a basic unit: Coulomb is the basic unit of electrical charge, Ampere is Coulomb per second, ergo Coulomb multiplied with Hertz. So the ISO standard should be changed to MKHzCKCa.

M: Meter for distance K: Kilogram for mass Hz: Hertz for movement C: Coulomb for electrical charge K: Kelvin for temperature Cd: Candela for the intensity of light

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But I think I can live with the old ones. It is just a matter of convention and conversion, isnt it?

On the personality of Albert Einstein

The LA premiere in 1930 of Charlie Chaplins movie City Lights was attended by Albert Einstein. When the public cheered them both, Chaplin remarked: They cheer me because they all understand me, and they cheer you because no one understands you. Albert was quit a society figure, he liked to be among the jet set and frequented many parties. The story goes that, on one of these occasions, he met with Marilyn Monroe. The story goes that Marilyn made the following proposal to Einstein: What do you say, professor, shouldn't we marry and have a little baby together: what a baby it would be - my looks and your intelligence! Einsteins answer was rather insulting for Marilyn: I'm afraid, dear lady, it might be the other way around. Marilyn was not that stupid at all. There exists no such a thing as a dumb blonde, only stupid men who believe in the existence of dumb blondes. Einstein was a theoretical physicist. An experimental scientist would rather answer: In order to be really scientific, we will have to do the experiment several times, lets say 1024 times. Only then we can make a scientifically and statistically reliable conclusion! But where do you find 1024 Marilyns?

Contact

geert.o.j.callens@gmail.com http://www.scribd.com/Geert%20Callens

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