A Science Text on Weights and Measures: Time Defined

Since we're all celebrating the illusion of a "New Year" and marking the change in one of the digits we use to record the number of rotations the earth makes, I thought I'd share some information from a book I received as a "New Year's" gift from a physicist friend of mine.

From the reference book "Weights and Measures", chapter defining "Time":

"Time is", it states "a dimension in which events occur in sequence".

In other words, it doesn't speed up or slow down. The events contained within the dimension of time may speed up or slow down, but time itself is merely the dimension in which these events occur.

It goes on to say:

"The only definition possible is an operational one in which time is defined by the process of measurement and by the units chosen."

And later states:

"Similar to definitions of other fundamental quantities (like [in measurements of] space and mass), time is defined by the units used to measure it and the method of its measurement. This definition defines time itself which otherwise is left undefined."

In other words, time is not the movement itself, it is the measurement of the quantity of that movement. The measurement itself, by definition, doesn't have the ability to change its quantity, or speed, but rather, that which it measures (movement of matter through space or of the caesium 133 atom) is what moves.

All movement must be measured relative to other objects (whether the earth or the caesium 133 atom) and the movement of those objects (the earth rotating on its axis or the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom), otherwise it is meaningless. So sure, measure the speed of transition of the caesium 133 atom and call that time, and time can speed up, but the secondary (or primary, whichever you prefer) definition of time as a dimension in which events occur in a sequential manner has not changed.


Furthermore, I have discovered that if I measure how fast I blink my eyelids and call that time, I can make time speed up by blinking my eyelids faster. DAMN I'M GOOD! I just figured out how to control time by blinking my eyelids! Wheee!

By the way, you're traveling through the dimension of time into the future as you read this, no time machine required.

(Happy New Nano-Second! Oh wow! Happy New Nano-Second Again! Oh damn. I can't keep up. Well, Happy New Nano-Second from now to infinity! Please don't try to drink champagne each time it's a new one or you'll keep a terrible headache!)


That is all.

A.