When did time begin?

[Dr Toker]

Lets talkabout time itself while were on the topic. Really, all time is, is a measurement of how long it takes our earth to spin on it axis. So Time on another planet would be totally different.
Also time from a Biblical stand point was different as well.

The structure of the Bible's internal calendar is not given directly. The various references to time found within its pages can be used to reconstruct the Bible calendar. That calendar provides the structure for counting precise days all the way from Adam to the present. It is also the calendar used in prophetic passages dealing with days months and years.

The Bible's definition of a day is unclear. Likely candidates include Sunrise and Sunset. This leaves all final date references, especially for predicted dates, with a tolerance of 1 day.

Bible months are a predictable 30 days each. No exceptions. There is no attempt to make the month synchronize with the movements of the earth's moon. It also makes time counted with months quite precise.

Biblical years come in two lengths with three different names. Years are either 360 days or 390 days, 12 or 13 months. The long years fall on the Sabbath and Jubilee years within a 50 year cycle.

[Ouroboros]

Time is irrelevant...based on how one percieves it...
A measurement between one point of existence and another, certainly...a succession of points of 'now', certainly...
The big bang(however untrue it is) or the creation(however untrue it is) only give reference points in the flow of time...'time' being a key factor in the realm of 'entropy'...
I would rather see things referenced to the scale of eternity...this happens, then this, then this...taken from a personal scale...counting down the days between events is an archaic thought process, in my opinion...
Whatever happened to 'i remember when...', and not 'on xx/xx/xxx this thing happened'...
The measurement of time was created by beings that seem to need reference points, however irrelevant...case in point, i am over xx years old, but don't remember WWII...dates and times don't relate anything special to me, no matter what my schooling or the History Channel says...i can't relate to things that way, since i have no memory of them. My biological age doesn't mean much to me either, come to think of it. But if someone can tell me about the past(past, present, and future being subjective terms), i'll listen and try to understand, but don't overwhelm me with dates and times...they are irrelevant...see my point?

Ouroboros

[ZeroOne]

I do think time exists, even though you can't put it into a can... And time continues to exist after we have died.
SarinMage: It's not a dimension? But space is 4-dimensional. Light travels so slow that scientists need to know the time-space coordinates of events to measure them and so on, you know...

-ZeroOne

"Time is an illusion. Especially the lunch time." -Ford Prefect

[gold eagle]

time is a creation. Currently we live in it. Does that make sense? It seems that time can be relative, especially in distance.

[lord_darkside_x]

yes time is relative in the measurement sense, but there is definitely a passing of something. there is definitely a forward progress that only goes in that one said directoin and it effects all that is around it. which is why while i am typing this, someone is making lunch or going to sleep. in a little while, i may no longer be typing this, but i can not walk over and see them doing the things they were doing while i typed this, because "time" passed. see what i am getting at?

[detector]

time is something that is used to describe a passing of an event or measurement. Don't believe that? Go look up how the one second measurement is done. We describe time in increments, note that all measuring is done in increments as well. Where am I going with this? Um.
The others said similar things in any case.

[Flibberdy]

one second is the time it takes for one photon of light to travel 2.98*10^8 metres (approx) That's quite irrelevant though. The Concept of time is somethign that started along with the universe and runs alongside it. Now a few theorists predicted that time and space intermingled at some points, which led Einstein to show how time slows down with speed (the experiments with the Atomic Clocks in the aeroplanes). So we can see that time is the so called 4th-dimension. Hence, it started with the creation of the (current) universe, and will end IF our universe ever ends (the Big Crunch, but that's looking quite unlikely at the moment). For more info read The Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawkings.

[gold eagle]

time is not a constant. That second measurement - is that not with only the blue light spectrum? Time can be flexible.

[xmaddness]

Well I'm happy to see such a response from everybody.. Well here is some info on the theory of time from the physics aspect. Some of this is directly taken from Stephen Hawkings book The Universe in a Nutshell and will be quoted accordingly.

Quoted from The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking

Einsteins general theory of relativity combines the time dimension with the three dimensions of space to form what is called spacetime. The theory incorporates the effect of gravity by saying that the distribution of matter and energy in the universe warps and distorts spacetime, so that it is not flat. Objects in this spacetime try to move in straight lines, but because spacetime is curved, their paths appear bent. They move as if affected by a gravitational field. By curving space and time, general relativity changes space and time from being a passive background against which events take place to being active, dynamic participants in what happens.

Dam this guy knows how to put it into words. I could try but I would probably just confuse myself and others.

Okay so this means that time is in fact a viable, tangible object. If it can affect objects in space, then it must exsist. Time as descibed in this way as having a shape means that there are several different possibilities of what shape it has. Some possibilities may be that it is flat, round like earth, or some other type of shape.

Well lets go ahead and discuss this part of the time equation.

Questions:

1) Is time a tangible thing. Alot of you have said that it is just a measurement that we have made up. Does this quote change your view or reinforce it?

2) If in fact time is as descibed as having a shape, what shape is it? Does it have edges that we can "fall off", or is it round like a sphere and we simply just keep circulating around it? Perhaps it is some completely random shape.

If anyone doesn't understand any of this please, please ask me too elaborate on it either by posting or PM'ing me. I would like everybody to come along for the ride.

Let's do it!

xmaddness

[Ouroboros]

Fine, but...spacetime is not 'time' as most measure it. Most people have no knowledge of the curvature of space-time, nor how matter changes it. From the eyes of an 80 year existence, it becomes irrelevant. The weight of thought changes nothing...'time' passes...and entropy degrades everything...except for the passage of moments....

Everything is relative in a closed frame...

Ouroboros