Time has been called the fourth dimension. Your car is
sitting somewhere. It has a location relative to a reference point at x, y
and z coordinates. Your GPS can show it’s x-y (latitude and longitude) as well
as z (elevation for aircraft GPS). But at 7am tomorrow your car will disappear
from that location when you go to work. It will return to about that same
location at 5pm. So we have to add a time to the xyz to insure the car is
really there when we observe the location.
A
Physicist said “Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.” I
suppose that was a tongue in cheek answer but it does make sense. We cannot all occupy the same space at the
same time. As the Bible says, there is a
time to sow and a time to reap, you
cannot do both at the same time. Can
time be tinkered with? Einstein’s equations predict that if the velocity of a
spaceship approaches that of light, time slows down for those on-board relative
to a stationary observer. There are other effects such as an increase in mass and
decrease in length of the spaceship.
Weird stuff! The word spacetime was created to describe the interaction.
I have tried to think of a Time as a river as have others ("The river of time") but I cannot make it work. If we are floating down the river, does the shore represent history after we pass? Time is hard to think about in isolation.
There is a time for
everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather
them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for
peace.
Ecclesiastes
Songs about time:
Right Place, Wrong Time...Dr. John
As Time Goes By...Natalie Cole
It's Just A Matter Of Time ...Brook Benton
