I would like you all to give me your answers to this question. In your opinion, when did time start? Was it when the world was created, or was it when man created the concept?
Well, forgive me if this is muddled, as physics isn't exactly my strongest area of interest, but I've never let ignorance stop me before, so here goes...
Time certainly didn't start when the world was created [or rather, was formed out of gas and space detritus], nor did it originate when man 'created' the concept. Mankind created the arbitrary system of chronology we labor under during our daily existence based on the cyclic aspects of the natural systems that govern the Earth, but Time itself is a measurement of physical reality that has less to do with the particular 24-hour clock that is specific only to the rotational patterns of our planet than it has to do with the interation of forces. Namely the mechanics of energy interacting with physical properties, whether that be measuring the force of energy-based attraction beween physical masses [i.e. measuring a physical body's strength of gravity by how long a 'time' it takes for, let's say for instance, a planet to get sucked into the sun] or measuring the speed [again, strength of energy] at which an object travels the distance of point A to B, or measuring the effects of heat on an object, etc. Likewise, time 'dilates', as in the faster any object with mass goes the slower time goes for that object vs. an object operating at 'stationary time'. According to things like the theory of relativity, if you yourself were to travel extremely fast in say, a space ship [I know I know, what an archetypal example], time for you would slow down vs what it is for me. Compared to me your heartbeats, thoughts, etc would be operating on an entirely different plane of time--meaning that say, if you did a loop around the earth in your ship at a high enough speed, by the time you landed years would have passed down here for me, but not for you. Hence the saying 'time is relative'.
Therefore, time is really a measure of energy vs physical distance and of physical particles interacting with one another, and as long as there have been basic particles and energy [arguably, forever] Time has also existed via this interaction.
When it comes to measuring the true properties of time, you get into all sorts of interesting things, like the impossibility of finding a 'smallest unit' of time--i.e. you can divide a second into milliseconds into nanoseconds etc etc forever and at no point would you hit the absence of time. In my opinion it is likely that what is infinite in its division is probably also infinite in its multiplication [imagine it like a fractal] and therefore an eternal element that coincides with the very idea of existence itself.
There are, of course, a lot of philosophical idea about the nature of time, but that would all be way too long and convoluted to stick in an LJ comment. Honestly, this is probably a subject that I could go on about at great length and bore everyone to death with.
Time certainly didn't start when the world was created [or rather, was formed out of gas and space detritus], nor did it originate when man 'created' the concept. Mankind created the arbitrary system of chronology we labor under during our daily existence based on the cyclic aspects of the natural systems that govern the Earth, but Time itself is a measurement of physical reality that has less to do with the particular 24-hour clock that is specific only to the rotational patterns of our planet than it has to do with the interation of forces. Namely the mechanics of energy interacting with physical properties, whether that be measuring the force of energy-based attraction beween physical masses [i.e. measuring a physical body's strength of gravity by how long a 'time' it takes for, let's say for instance, a planet to get sucked into the sun] or measuring the speed [again, strength of energy] at which an object travels the distance of point A to B, or measuring the effects of heat on an object, etc. Likewise, time 'dilates', as in the faster any object with mass goes the slower time goes for that object vs. an object operating at 'stationary time'. According to things like the theory of relativity, if you yourself were to travel extremely fast in say, a space ship [I know I know, what an archetypal example], time for you would slow down vs what it is for me. Compared to me your heartbeats, thoughts, etc would be operating on an entirely different plane of time--meaning that say, if you did a loop around the earth in your ship at a high enough speed, by the time you landed years would have passed down here for me, but not for you. Hence the saying 'time is relative'.
Therefore, time is really a measure of energy vs physical distance and of physical particles interacting with one another, and as long as there have been basic particles and energy [arguably, forever] Time has also existed via this interaction.
When it comes to measuring the true properties of time, you get into all sorts of interesting things, like the impossibility of finding a 'smallest unit' of time--i.e. you can divide a second into milliseconds into nanoseconds etc etc forever and at no point would you hit the absence of time. In my opinion it is likely that what is infinite in its division is probably also infinite in its multiplication [imagine it like a fractal] and therefore an eternal element that coincides with the very idea of existence itself.
There are, of course, a lot of philosophical idea about the nature of time, but that would all be way too long and convoluted to stick in an LJ comment. Honestly, this is probably a subject that I could go on about at great length and bore everyone to death with.
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