Does time exist?

A great debate in physics is: does time exist? And if it does exist, how do we know?

1. Time as you know it is all man-made, primarily to keep order. Days, weeks, months, years, minutes, seconds, daylight savings time, are all man-made. How would you tell the difference between 1916 and 2016 if you had no calendar?

2. Why can we only experience time in two ways and not three? We know the present, we remember the past, but we cannot see the future.

Yes, time exists. 21
No, time does not exist. 8
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Comments ( 14 )
  • Whatintarnation

    You're high right now aren't you?

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  • JustAHuman

    Days aren't made up. It's the amount of time it takes the earth to spin once. Years aren't made up. It's the amount of time it take the earth to revolve around the sun once.

    Time is real

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  • S0UNDS_WEIRD

    Yes. It exists. Let's preface with getting up to speed on a few things you may or may not be familiar with so that what I say is distinguishable from gibberish and ergo actually helpful. Much of it is quite specific so without some prior study of it, it can sound alien to even quite intelligent people.

    • c is the speed of causality, more often known as the speed of light. I'll simply be saying "c".

    • A dimension isn't a realm or place, but an axis along which something can exist. The typical measurements of conventionally spatial dimensions are width, length, and depth.

    • "Temporal" is to time what "spatial" is to space.

    Okay. Most physicists see time as a physical dimension, albeit a temporal one rather than a spatial one. It's believed to be inseparable from the three major spatial dimensions of 3D space in something known as 4D Minkowski spacetime.

    You likely know that c is the universal speed limit, that nothing can exceed this speed. What many people don't know is that it's actually the _only_ speed; everything _must_ travel at c but the speed is distributed between the three major spatial dimensions and the temporal dimension in question. As we _must_ move at c, when we barely move spatially we're propelled temporally at c. This is why we constantly move forward in time (why there's a preferred temporal direction is another matter I can cover another time [pun intended]). Light experiences the opposite. It doesn't move temporally so it's propelled spatially at c (thus c being referred to as "the speed of light").

    As we increase our spatial speed, the distribution of c subtracts from our travel through time, and we've successfully demonstrated altering the passage through time for originally synchronized clocks using this method, proving that time exists.

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  • BleedingPain

    Time is just an illusion

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  • idolomantis

    I THINK time is just a concept involving the expansion of matter, our perception of it, and the vast quantities of distance information must travel. It’s pretty impractical for everything to be perfectly in sync the way it’s...supposed to be on our phones, after all.

    Answer to question #I know math. 2016-1916 is 100 years, duh.

    Answer to question #2 We remember the past to our best ability but still accidentally corrupt it against our will(we can improve it sometimes too), we experience the present but still contaminate it at times(the past and present are VERY close together, it happens.) and we predict the future based on the management of our perception of the past and present. I need more beer.

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  • Inkmaster

    Time isn't man-made, the units we use to measure it are. Even if it was man-made, why should that mean it doesn't exist? Language is man-made and it exists.

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  • Tommythecaty

    Yes, hence the word “time” existing to describe it.

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  • LloydAsher

    Yes time exists to us on a linear basis. Since we literally do not have a way to see it any other way besides being heavily intoxicated at that point it's your own perspective. The world goes through linear change through time.

    Now if you were an extra dimensional being that was beyond fourth dimension than sure time isnt as linear as our simple 3 dimensional selves. But it exists none the less.

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  • Vvaas

    time is a concept

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  • donteatstuffoffthesidewalk

    it sure as fuck exists when i sleep through my alarm

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    • litelander8

      You set an alarm just to play with your dingo?

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      • donteatstuffoffthesidewalk

        no he sets the alarm by flippin his shit at 6 am when theres a squirrel on the porch

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  • techpc

    Why does anything exist? Not because we chose to give it a name, but because it just exists. Idk man I think you're reading into it too far.

    I think yes, time exists as a force of nature.

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  • 1WeirdGuy

    I thought the title said does dogs time exist. I was quite confused. I was watching neal degrass tyson clip on joe rogan and he explains it really well. I couldnt even try to explain it im not that knowledgeable.

    But yeah I see what ur saying there it is kind of funny if you think about it

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