What are space and time?
in [Math]
|
Prev: andre@moorelife.nl
Next: get cancer and die, musacunt
From: harald on 8 Jul 2010 05:19 On Jul 8, 4:40 am, Immortalist <reanimater_2...(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > What sort of things are they if they are things? > > One natural answer is that they comprise continua, three-dimensional > in the case of space, one-dimensional in the case of time; that is to > say that they consist of continuous manifolds, positions in which can > be occupied by substances and events respectively, and which have an > existence in their own right. "Existence in their own right"? First of all they are human concepts, based on physical phenomena. See for example, "The evolution of space and time" of Paul Langevin (translation is still work-in-progress): http://searcher88.wikispaces.com/Langevin1911 > It is in virtue of the occupancy of such positions that events and > processes are to be seen as taking place after each other and > substances are to be seen in certain spatial relations. > > Or do space and time have properties of their own independent of the > objects and events that they contain? > > Did Einstein show, through his theory of relativity, that since space > and time can change in shape and duration that space and time are more > complex than just sustained perceptual constants? See the article above. Harald > Metaphysics - by D. W. Hamlynhttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0521286905/
From: bert on 8 Jul 2010 07:48 On Jul 8, 12:10 am, Sam Wormley <sworml...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On 7/7/10 9:40 PM, Immortalist wrote: > > > What sort of things are they if they are things? > > Some Background > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime > > "The concept of spacetime combines space and time to a single abstract > "space", for which a unified coordinate system is chosen. Typically > three spatial dimensions (length, width, height), and one temporal > dimension (time) are required. Dimensions are independent components of > a coordinate grid needed to locate a point in a certain defined "space". Sam Einstein has "time" more important than space. He gave it a dimension. Without time you can not be at a given place to meet. Without time how could we measure the size an age of the universe? TreBert
From: Pat Flannery on 8 Jul 2010 12:29 On 7/8/2010 3:48 AM, bert wrote: > Sam Einstein has "time" more important than space. He gave it a > dimension. A dimension of sight and sound? Where you are the last man on Earth, and you've broken your glasses? ;-) Pat
From: Neil Gerace on 8 Jul 2010 10:14 Pat Flannery wrote: > On 7/8/2010 3:48 AM, bert wrote: >> Sam Einstein has "time" more important than space. He gave it a >> dimension. > > A dimension of sight and sound? > Where you are the last man on Earth, and you've broken your glasses? ;-) "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime, doubly so." -- Ford Prefect
From: Pat Flannery on 8 Jul 2010 14:25
On 7/8/2010 6:55 AM, John Stafford wrote: > That goofy librarian could have rummaged about the earth for another > pair of glasses, but that would be a sequel and they didn't do them then. You probably don't have really bad vision like I do (and his glasses made his look far worse than mine in that episode) I've spent half an hour looking around the inside of my apartment for my misplaced glasses before I could locate which particular blur was them. :-) > Back to the subject: What is a light year? I think it is a year that has > more taste, is less filling. I'd say a light year was 1752, when 11 days were dropped from the year to get the calender back into adjustment with the sky: http://www.cslib.org/CalendarChange.htm Pat |