Introduction
The purpose of this website is to set out succinct definitions of time, and show that time is really a simple notion (and barely a mention of mathematics or physics, promise!).
If we know what time is then why are some of the basic questions around it so difficult to answer. Like when did time start, and when will time finish? What causes time? Can we travel in time? Can time standstill? Can time go backwards?Some people question whether time actually exists.
Surely these can’t be difficult to answer if time is a clear notion, with a straightforward definition. But, apparently, these are difficult questions that seem to perplex the greatest of minds. Nowhere in his book “A Brief History of Time” does Stephen Hawkins actually define what he means by time although he offers a history of it. On page 1 he does ask the question, along with other fundamental questions, “What is time?” He then speculates about finding answers to these fundamental questions, and remarks, flippantly, that “only time (whatever that is) will tell”, which suggests that he too doesn’t have a definition of time. He certainly doesn’t offer a succinct, clear definition. Checking out dictionaries doesn’t help – they all have very varied (and often, frankly, unsatisfactory) definitions of time and seem to have abandoned the attempt to define it properly.
So if we don’t know the answers to some fundamental questions about time, and we struggle to have a coherent definition of time, could it be because we don’t really understand what we collectively mean by time?
Or perhaps we do understand time, and it’s really a simple notion. But the overuse, or misuse, of the word has clouded the definition. Should this quandary be in the realm of philosophy, physics and cosmology or is it more a matter of semantics?
The answers are all here - take your time...
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