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    What Is Time?: Santosh Chaudhary M.SC (Physics)

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    Santosh Chaudhary
    Time is a concept that has been studied and debated by physicists and philosophers. According to Newtonian physics, time is the same for all observers, but Einstein's theory of relativity posits that time is relative. The theory of relativity states that time passes more slowly for observers moving at high speeds relative to others. For example, a moving clock will measure less time between two events than a stationary clock. Time is thus the fourth dimension of spacetime according to relativity, making the universe four-dimensional rather than just three dimensions of space.

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    What Is Time?: Santosh Chaudhary M.SC (Physics)

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    Santosh Chaudhary
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    Time is a concept that has been studied and debated by physicists and philosophers. According to Newtonian physics, time is the same for all observers, but Einstein's theory of relativity posits that time is relative. The theory of relativity states that time passes more slowly for observers moving at high speeds relative to others. For example, a moving clock will measure less time between two events than a stationary clock. Time is thus the fourth dimension of spacetime according to relativity, making the universe four-dimensional rather than just three dimensions of space.

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    Discussion on what the time is.

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    What is Time

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    Time is a concept that has been studied and debated by physicists and philosophers. According to Newtonian physics, time is the same for all observers, but Einstein's theory of relativity posits that time is relative. The theory of relativity states that time passes more slowly for observers moving at high speeds relative to others. For example, a moving clock will measure less time between two events than a stationary clock. Time is thus the fourth dimension of spacetime according to relativity, making the universe four-dimensional rather than just three dimensions of space.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    349 views1 page

    What Is Time?: Santosh Chaudhary M.SC (Physics)

    Uploaded by

    Santosh Chaudhary
    Time is a concept that has been studied and debated by physicists and philosophers. According to Newtonian physics, time is the same for all observers, but Einstein's theory of relativity posits that time is relative. The theory of relativity states that time passes more slowly for observers moving at high speeds relative to others. For example, a moving clock will measure less time between two events than a stationary clock. Time is thus the fourth dimension of spacetime according to relativity, making the universe four-dimensional rather than just three dimensions of space.

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    What is Time?

    What is time? It is a great question to physicists and philosophers. I am not a physicist nor a
    philosopher, although I have studied physics. I would like to introduce the concepts of time, from
    views of physicists. Suppose, I have provided a lecture to my student for one hour. According to
    Newtonian physics this time interval is same for all. i.e. the interval of the time is one hour for
    everyone, for me, my student ,any observer watching my lecture and a person moving in a train.
    Now let's understand the concept of time from Einstein's theory of relativity. After the Michelson-
    Morley Experiments , Einstein postulated that the speed of light is same for all, which led to
    formulation of new physics called Theory of Relativity. According to this theory mass, time and
    length are relative quantities i.e. they depend upon the observers. It is speed of light that is constant
    for everything (observers). The speed of light is approximately 3 Lakh KM per second. suppose a
    observer is travelling with speed 2 lakh Km per second away from you. Now switch on a torch light
    towards the travelling observer . Suppose we are only knowing Newtonian physics ,then the speed
    of light with respect to the observer ,as calculated by us will be 1 lakh Km per second, but it is not
    true. If you ask to the travelling observer, he would reply that the speed of light measured by him
    is also 3 lakh Km per second. According to the theory of relativity , time is not obsolete physical
    quantity but it is relative to observer. Time interval between two events is different for different
    observers moving with different velocities. Suppose an observer moving with velocity V with respect
    to you. You are at rest . Let T and t are the time intervals between two events with respect to you
    and the observer respectively, then according to theory of relativity ,

    t = T/(1-v2/c2)1/2

    I.e. the time interval between the occurrence of two events for you is smaller than the time interval
    for the moving observer . This is also known as time dilation. so we can say that moving object has
    longer lifetime than the same stationary object. According to the theory of relativity, time is forth
    dimension of the universe. We are generally awared with three dimensions. They are length,
    breadth and height or (X,Y and Z axes in Cartesian coordinate system). The world we are watching
    seems to us 3 dimensional. The maximum numbers of dimensions we have studied in geometry
    from our school to introductory college level is 3. This geometry is known as Euclidian geometry.
    But the Theory of Relativity gave birth to four dimensional geometry in which three are
    conventional space dimensions and fourth is time dimension. This geometry is known as space-
    time geometry or Mankowski space. Spacetime geometry is very tough to understand not for only
    general man but even for Physicist. Next time we will try to understand this four dimensional space.
    By- Santosh Chaudhary M.Sc(Physics)

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