Time, Mechanics and Zeno Undergo Major Revision

spacedaily.com ^ | 13 Aug 03 | Brooke Jones

[SunkenCiv]

Ground-breaking work in understanding of time
Eurekalert | July 31, 2003 | Brooke Jones
Posted on 07/31/2003 10:13:14 AM EDT by Nebullis
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/955747/posts

[SunkenCiv]

Amateur mathematician’s time theories published at last
New Zealand Herald | 31.07.2003 11.04 am | NZPA
Posted on 07/31/2003 4:01:59 AM EDT by JerseyHighlander
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/955624/posts

[JasonC]

The operative word is actually "measure", and all he is going on and on about can be reduced to saying that measure is a distinct concept from any accumulation of points. Which is elementary measure theory, well known from special counterexamples in analysis, etc.

[JasonC]

No modern calc explanation needs instants of any kind, that was all solved in the 19th century when analysis was made rigorous. It is true there was an era of flying by the seat of the pants, mathematically speaking, before then, from Galileo to Cantor, to put it at its maximum span. But all settled.

The reason the pros appeared to be interested is not the garden variety Zeno, which anyone who gets through analysis gets straight, but instead a "cat can look at a king" value seen in his critical comments directed at real physicists proposing quantized time. (With the tendency that such proposals, by others, are not needed and make the rest of the QM machinery less consistent not more).

[Cogadh na Sith]

But Lynds points out, "If the universe were frozen static at such an instant, this would be a precise static instant of time -- time would be a physical quantity." Consequently Lynds says that it's due to nature's very exclusion of a time as a fundamental physical quantity, that time as it is measured in physics, or relative interval, and as such, motion and physical continuity are possible in the first instance.

I dunno.... I kinda like this part.

We measure time by events, but events don't cause time--Causality doesn't imply time, just event order.

[RightWhale]

I haven’t posted many threads since this one. Never got to 1000, probably never will.

[ThomasThomas]

This might be of help to anyone whose kids asks, “Are we their yet?”

[RightWhale]

“Are we their yet?”

Are we their what? And who is 'they'?

[reg45]

Isaac Newton shot down Zeno. It was an easy shot, since Zeno was not moving.

[norton]

As someone who ran screaming away from mathematics following a spirited exchange regarding the value "i" (imaginary unit, Sq Root of -1) versus the 'unscientific assumptions' of other pursuits:
The whole half way there, again, again, and again parable has always seemed simply a cute bit of silliness.

Stating that "The series...converges to the time it takes for the arrow to get there, because the remaining terms added in are essentially zero." reminds me of the 'usefulness' of any mathematical imaginary unit:
It disproves the model simply because it is required to explain the model.

That's why I wound up with a degree in Political Science and a career in aerospace (in which my math requirements were studiously limited).

The value of this guy's work seems to lie in (a) the fact that many established scientists detest it - causing one to marvel at the entrenched nature of much 'science', and (b) the fact that many others seem to believe it will allow for new investigation and, possibly, knowledge.

The I read in FR that it isn't a big deal, knew it all along, measurement does not freeze time, etc. And wonder what the causes of (a) and (b) are - ?

[ThomasThomas]

I'm really not trying to start anything but who is on first.

[Old Professer]

This would make perfect sense if time was a circle.

[Old Professer]