Essay outside of the NMT (No-Me Teaching) series 17 b

Quantum Reality (cont) – Time 3 – physics A - Science:

Continuing at first our previous “common-sensical” notions about Time, we note that in our every sense of it, Time “marches on” out of our control. Time “flows” & “goes by” [ as Sam played it again in “Casblanca”]. Even in Science & Philosophy, Time is put “before” the Big-Bang as potentially existent & “ready to go”, even put beyond God who is placed in Time that contains Him [like Cronos on Mt. Olypmus was given primacy & seniority, as the father of Zeus – but that common reference is not really fair because Chronos (different spelling) was Time, not Cronos].

The predictable trajectory of moving objects described by Classical Mechanics reinforces that impressions. For such simple systems, we can “predict the Future” when given initial Velocity vector & applied Force & resulting applicable Acceleration (such as, of Gravity). Physics frequently sets Time as the abscissa or horizontal Coordinate on graphs, especially since it cn be considered an extensive “independent” Coordinate [2 criteria, preferred for though neither absolutely essential for, the horizontal Coordinate].

Furthermore, Thermodynamics (though not the microscopic irreversibility of Statistical Mechanics) bestows upon Time an “arrow” –  a direction from Past on into the Future. Drop Humptey Dumptey, or any other egg, & the process will not go backwards so as to decrease rather than increase Entropy. [Science admits other “arrows” for Time, but this one for eggs, human bodies, anything, is the simplest & most “straightforward” (excuse the pun)]. Depicting 2 states of a system, we can often recognize which “came first” simply by ordering lesser to greater Entropy of disorder.

So flew the “arrow of Time” in Newton’s Absolute Space & Time [both are really “there” even when nothing else is around] until that “apple-cart” (again excuse the pun) was overturned by Einstein’s Special Relativity (SR) Space-Time continuum. In the provably truer model of SR, Space itself was replaced by the distances between objects [relative to the observer(s)] & Time was replaced by the durations between events. In other words, there really was no “Nothing”, Void between objects & events [in agreement with the Eleatic Philosophers], just the “naked measurements”.

Time in SR (like Space) could be stretched-out (dilated) or compressed in the comparison between the experience of 2 Observers with large Velocities relative to the observed event. Even the “arrow of Time” could seem to be reversed for high Velocities (& high Acceleration in General Relativity (GR) [all subject to party-pooping disclaimers about the transfer of efficacious Information].

Backing up to the moment of the Big Bang & at the Event Horizon of every Black Hole [they have been verified for a long time now] Time of course “stands still” (like in an X-men movie).

Our mundane sense & measurement of Time is often determined by uniformly repetitive motion such as in: atomic transitions, the Sun, the Moon, a pendulum, a spring ratchet, an electro-magnetic field, sand or water through an hour-glass, & so on. On the larger scale we use observed evidence to mark points in historical time. Some evergreens date back 6 millennia. Ice cores in Greenland set dates of a hundred millennia. Ice cores in Anartical set dates of a almost a ½ Million years, certain sediments to almost a Million. Certain Tidal information sets dates of a ½ Billion years.

Radioactive nuclides (isomers of various elements)  can extend the clock in ½–life increments of ¾ of a Billion years with ²³⁵U, & in 1 ¼ Billion year increments with ⁴⁰K. The more slowly decaying ²³⁸U increments are 4 ½ Billion, while those of ¹⁷⁶Lu are 36 Billion, those of ^187Re are 43 Billion, & while those of ⁸⁷Rb are almost 50 Billion.

The last practical “clock” ¹⁴⁷Sm, offers up increments of a 100 Billion years.  Of course “just” 4 ½ Billion takes us through the Age of the Earth while 14 Billion takes us back past the Big Bang. But even this limited variety of Time-measuring tools allows for multiply redundant confirmation of Geological Time estimates.

SR relative–Velocity red-shifts in the frequency (~ color) of astronomical Light, GR relative–Acceleration red-shifts, & more importantly, Inflation & other expansion red-shifts measure Space-Time intervals that combine spatial distance with temporal measurements of Time. “Standard Candle” measurements come into play at these scales also. From the Pit (black hole) to the Pendulum, through red-shifts (& blue), Big Bang, Inflation–Expansion & all that we sketch a few details at a later point [including a review of the famous 1^st 3 minutes]. But next we brave the mind-numbing perils of Philosophy to compare to our prior Grammatical/Linguistic Tense & Time to that of Metaphysics.

 The above themes & 1600 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through:  

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or with Caps-sensitive:

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Duplicates have been available on:

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[But from now on, they will be different & still usually daily.]

"There is no Creation, no Destruction, no Bondage, no longing to be freed from Bondage, no striving for Liberation, nor anyone who has attained Liberation. Know that this to be Ultimate Truth."  –  the "no creation" school of Gaudapada, Shankara, Ramana, Nome – Ajata Vada

for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see:  www.ajatavada.com/