Time is the value of various measurements used to indicate a sequence of events, for example, to compare their duration or the intervals between them. Time is also needed to quantify the rate of change in the quantities of material reality and conscious experience. It is often referred to as the fourth dimension along with three others.
Time in different sciences
For a very long time, time has been an important subject of study by religion, philosophy, and physics, but it has a definition that applies to all areas without circularity. Nevertheless, various spheres of human activity, such as business, industry, sports, science and performing arts, incorporate some concept of time into their respective measurement systems.
Time in physics is unambiguously defined as "what the clock reads." It is one of the seven fundamental physical quantities both in the International System of Units (SI) and in the International System of Quantities.
Time is used to determine other quantities, such as speed, so the definition in terms will lead to cyclicality. The usual definition of time says that for one standard unit of time, you can fix a cyclic event, such as a swing of a pendulum. It is very useful both in everyday life and in various experiments.
Time Dimension and History
In general, time measurement methods, or chronometry, take two different forms: a calendar, a mathematical tool for organizing time intervals, and a clock, a physical mechanism that counts the passage of time.
In everyday life, hours are standardly taken into account for periods that are less than a day, and a calendar - for periods greater than one day. Personal electronic devices are increasingly displaying both calendars and clocks simultaneously.
The number (as on the watch dial or calendar) that marks the occurrence of a specific event relative to the hour or date is obtained by counting from the verification era - the central control point.
History of time measuring instruments
To measure time, a large number of different devices were invented. The study of these devices is called chorology.
The Egyptian device, which dates back to 1500 BC. e., similar in shape to a curved T-square. It measured the course of time from the shadow cast by the bar according to a nonlinear rule. The T was east oriented in the morning. At noon, the device was positioned so that it could cast its shadow in the evening direction.
The position of the shadow marks the hour in local time. The idea of dividing the day into smaller parts is attributed to the Egyptians thanks to their sundial, which operated according to the duodecimal system. The importance of the number 12 was due to the number of moon cycles per year and the number of stars used to calculate the passage of the night.
Absolute time
Absolute space and time is a concept in physics and in philosophy about the properties of the universe. In physics, absolute space and time may be the preferred structure.
Prior to Newton, a variant of the concept of absolute space (the preferred reference frame) can be seen in Aristotle's physics.
Robert S. Westman writes that the concept of absolute time can be observed in the classic work of Copernicus De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, where he uses the concept of a fixed sphere of stars.
Newton
The concepts of absolute time and space, originally introduced by Sir Isaac Newton in the Philosophi Naturalis Principia Mathematica, provided the theoretical basis. She facilitated Newtonian mechanics.
According to Newton, absolute space and time are independent aspects of objective reality.
Absolute and relative time, due to its own nature, flows equally regardless of anything external and is called duration differently: relative, apparent and total time is a kind of reasonable and external (exact or fuzzy) measure of duration, which is usually used instead of true time.
Differences from relative time
Newton also introduced the concept of absolute time. It exists independently of any perceiver and progresses at a constant speed throughout the universe. Unlike relative time, Newton believed that absolute time is imperceptible and can only be understood mathematically.
According to Newton, people are able to perceive only relative time. It is a measurement of perceived objects in motion (for example, the moon or the sun). The course of time can be inferred from these movements.
Absolute space, by its nature, regardless of anything external, always remains similar and motionless. Relative space is a certain moving dimension or measure of absolute spaces, which our feelings determine by their position in relation to bodies and which are vulgarly perceived as motionless space ... Absolute movement is the transfer of the body from one absolute place to another, and relative movement is a translation from one relative place to another.
Isaac Newton
What did Newton mean?
These concepts imply that absolute space and time are independent of physical events, but are the background or scene in which they occur. Thus, each object has an absolute state of motion relative to absolute space, so that the object must either be in a state of absolute rest or move with some absolute speed. To support his views, Newton gave several empirical examples.
According to Newton, it can be assumed that a rotating single sphere rotates around its axis relative to absolute space, observing the convexity of its equator, and a single pair of spheres connected together rotates around its center of gravity (barycenter), observing the rope tension.
Absolute time and space continue to be used in classical mechanics, but modern formulations by authors such as Walter Knoll and Clifford Truesdell go beyond linear algebra and elastic modules to use topology and functional analysis for nonlinear theories.
Other views
Historically, there are different views on the concept of absolute space and time. Gottfried Leibniz believed that space does not make sense, except as the relative arrangement of bodies, and time does not make sense, except as for the movement of bodies.
George Berkeley suggested that without a reference point, a sphere in an empty Universe cannot be represented as rotating, and a pair of spheres can be represented so as to rotate relative to each other, but not to rotate around its center. Gravity is an example raised later by Albert Einstein in his development of the general theory of relativity.
A more recent form of these objections was voiced by Ernst Mach. Mach's principle assumes that mechanics is entirely connected with the relative motion of bodies, and, in particular, mass is an expression of such relative motion. For example, one particle in the Universe without other bodies will have zero mass. According to Mach, Newton’s examples simply illustrate the relative rotation of the spheres and the volume of the universe.