The value of time.

 One of the most sought over question ever is “What is time?” Yes, the question is crazy enough. And I am sure that you can’t answer it satisfactorily. To be honest me too is not sure about what is time. But, in this world there were philosophers and scientists who tried to provide something satisfactory, as we don’t know the all total significance of it we can’t be very sure about how close they reached. We can’t see it, but, we do sense it and with the help of mathematics and physics we are able to calculate it to some extent and to some extent we can measure it and its consequences.  

The search for the value of time and its origin is eternity long. To determine the amount of time various civilizations in the past devised various calendars in their own different and unique way. They generally used apparent position of stars and other celestial bodies and day night variation to determine the time. There were lunar calendars in Paleolithic era, and were among the first calendars that were devised. Then at around 45BC Julius Caesar put the Roman world on a solar calendar which was later corrected and modified. Ancient Egyptians used solar clocks (sundials) to determine the daytime and day length. After tons of modifications and advancement now we have developed some sort of atomic clocks which uses frequency of subatomic and atomic particles as basis to measure time.

Even after all this at some point in history their was a belief that time is something devised by clock

manufacturers so that they can get plenty of watch to make and have a heap of benefits. In 5^th century BC Greece, Parmenides in his work “On Truth” mentioned “Time is not a reality (hypostasis), but a concept or a measure.” And also noted that time, motion and changes were illusion.  Buddhist thought also supported time as an illusion. Although Julian Barbour in his book “The End of Time” argued that quantum equations of universe retain their original validity in a timeless realm which only consist of now (all possible) and momentary configuration of the universe, he named it ‘platonia’.

Time is something measurable unlike space (which I mentioned earlier in my article The state of no motion.). Galileo and Newton were among the two who proposed that time is something that is measureable, and can be measured accurately unlike position, irrespective of the observer if instruments used for this purpose has minimum or no error, yes, you are always allowed to question the ability of the observer.   

Later, after the age of Galileo and Newton passed, in the early twentieth century Einstein argued that even time is not something unchangeable. In his special theory of relativity Einstein argued that the faster we go through space the slower time goes, Einstein in his book wrote that "simultaneous is also relative". This statement of Einstein directly clashed with the classical idea established for century by Galileo and Newton.

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 According to space-time concept of Einstein’s special theory of relativity time is defined as the fourth dimension, which along with length, width and breadth form the universe by their interaction in an internet like fashion.

Time is also one of the favorite content of sci-fi movies, as it allows time travel which further allow hero to land on any time and smash the villain. But, there are tons of controversies regarding time travels reality. It will be better to skip that time travel part.

But, where and when did time originated? Well, once St. Augustine was asked- What was god doing before creating the universe? as expected he would have said that god was creating hell for those who ask this type of question. But not, he replied- the unique feature of this universe created by god is that there was no existence of time before it was created.

Time is such a vast thing, which we are encountering every while, but still are such doubtful about its validity.

"I do not define time, space, place, and motion, as being well known to all.."                                                                                                                         -Isaac Newton.