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Richard Muller on why the flow of time is not an illusion
Physics Today ^ | 10 Feb, 2017 | Melinda Baldwin

Posted on 02/11/2017 7:10:41 AM PST by MtnClimber

The physicist and author argues that cosmologists should take the concept of time more seriously and talks about becoming a “converted skeptic” on climate change.

....MULLER: The flow of time does not exist in the usual spacetime diagram of physics. Time is mysterious; in any relativistic coordinate system, it is linked to space. And yet time is different—and I mean much more than simply a sign in the metric. Time flows. Choose any coordinate system and you can stand still in space but not in time. That different behavior breaks the otherwise glorious spacetime symmetry. Moreover, there is a special moment in time we call “now.” No such special location exists in the dimensions of space.

Einstein considered his inability to account for the flow of time and the meaning of “now” as a failure. Some modern theorists aren’t up to his standard; they think that anything they can’t explain with their current theories must be dismissed as illusionary.

(Excerpt) Read more at physicstoday.scitation.org ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: fakescience; physics; relativity; space; time
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To: MtnClimber

Does time exist independent of space? Is there any relationship between the two?


21 posted on 02/11/2017 7:57:19 AM PST by IronJack
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To: MtnClimber

It’s time to cross the line from later on to way back when.


22 posted on 02/11/2017 8:06:52 AM PST by loungitude (The truth hurts.)
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To: MtnClimber

bump for later


23 posted on 02/11/2017 8:07:17 AM PST by BikerTrash
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To: Nifster

He set up a ‘foundation’ to ‘examine’ it. Refuses to acknowledge that bad data produces bad results.

Theoretical physicists think they know everything....

...

Yep. He’s past his prime and going outside his area of expertise.


24 posted on 02/11/2017 8:07:27 AM PST by Moonman62 (Make America Great Again!)
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To: Moonman62
"Theoretical physicists think they know everything...."


25 posted on 02/11/2017 8:09:53 AM PST by BlueLancer (Ex Scientia Tridens)
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To: ETL

Exactly.


26 posted on 02/11/2017 8:12:00 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: IronJack
Does time exist independent of space? Is there any relationship between the two?

Time and space are intimately locked together into what Einstein called "space-time". The distance one has yet to travel during a trip increasingly contracts with increasing speed. This is entirely apart from the obvious shortening due to their having already traveled some of the distance.

27 posted on 02/11/2017 8:15:39 AM PST by ETL (Trump admin apparently playing "good cop, bad cop" with thug Putin (see my FR Home page))
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To: IronJack
Scientists refer both as one as in “spacetime.” Time is simply the fourth dimension and like the other three dimensions, is affected gravity and velocity.
28 posted on 02/11/2017 8:16:56 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: MtnClimber
Moreover, there is a special moment in time we call “now.” No such special location exists in the dimensions of space.

Uh, how about "here?"

29 posted on 02/11/2017 8:17:22 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: Torahman
So that everything wouldn’t happen all at once!

I've had days when that didn't work.

30 posted on 02/11/2017 8:22:29 AM PST by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: IronJack

...to put it another way, a moving clock ticks out time more slowly than a stationary one at your side. In fact, it has been experimentally verified that people aboard fast-moving air or space craft actually experience a shorter length of time than the counterparts on the ground. In other words, to a very minute degree, they’ve actually moved ahead in time, vs earthbound folks. They used an atomic clock to measure.


31 posted on 02/11/2017 8:22:35 AM PST by ETL (Trump admin apparently playing "good cop, bad cop" with thug Putin (see my FR Home page))
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To: MtnClimber
Every point in time along your lifeline is "now", just like everywhere you go is "here", to you.
And then it immediately changes to a new "now" and a new "here".
And each observer has his own here and now. Always and ever changing.

32 posted on 02/11/2017 8:23:22 AM PST by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: BlueLancer

That ridiculously stupid show and Modern Family make me very happy I gave up popular television several decades ago.


33 posted on 02/11/2017 8:36:14 AM PST by ETL (Trump admin apparently playing "good cop, bad cop" with thug Putin (see my FR Home page))
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To: MtnClimber

Drunk goes to the doctor for a checkup.
doctor tells drunk, I have some good news and some bad news.
Bad News: your liver is shot and you have 6 months to live.
Good News: Your wife has joined Al-Anon. It’s going to be the longest 6 months of your life.


34 posted on 02/11/2017 8:36:25 AM PST by stylin19a (Terrorists - "just because you don't see them doesn't mean they aren't there")
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To: MtnClimber

He’s going to create some time?

Wow.

When is he going to do this?


35 posted on 02/11/2017 8:45:24 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: oblomov

*** “It isn’t an illusion if it’s a shared perception” ***

Magic ;^0


36 posted on 02/11/2017 8:45:48 AM PST by TexasTransplant (They used to get away with it. Not anymore.)
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To: blueunicorn6

Recto-cranial insertion should be renamed the Mullerian Here. Once he extricates himself, he’ll make time for it.


37 posted on 02/11/2017 8:47:52 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: BitWielder1
each observer has his own here and now. Always and ever changing.

"Here", in relation to what? Everything in the universe is in motion, except perhaps for the Microwave Background Radiation, a supposed remnant leftover from the Big Bang which (more or less) uniformly fills the universe.

With respect to it, we can actually detect the motion of our Milky Way galaxy, as one side of the MBR map is redshifted, the other blueshifted. Redshifts indicates we are moving away from that portion, while blueshifts indicates the opposite, moving towards.

38 posted on 02/11/2017 9:05:55 AM PST by ETL (Trump admin apparently playing "good cop, bad cop" with thug Putin (see my FR Home page))
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To: ETL
"Here", in relation to what?

Now.

39 posted on 02/11/2017 9:12:55 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: RegulatorCountry

But “here” is a location. How can a location be defined in terms of absolute? You can only define a location in relation to something else. And there is nothing, except perhaps for the MBR I mentioned above, that can be considered stationary, in the grand scale of things. Ultimate absoluteness.


40 posted on 02/11/2017 9:18:26 AM PST by ETL (Trump admin apparently playing "good cop, bad cop" with thug Putin (see my FR Home page))
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