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Asked by doggyloverHP to Jonathan, Kellie, Kevin, Melissa, Stephanie on 28 Apr 2016.
Question: Does time really exist? Or is it just a fake, like time travel in movies.
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Jonathan Jackson answered on 28 Apr 2016:
I love this question because it gets at the heart of why science is so cool. Without getting too overly-serious, we have to understand what it means for something to “really exist.” Does that mean time has to behave in a certain way, no matter who’s looking at it? If so, then maybe light and radio waves and even solid objects don’t quite exist in the way that we’re used to.
We know that space and time are really two sides of a coin called spacetime. They’re not really different – as you warp and bend space, you warp and bend time right along with it. That seems to be true, as far as we can tell. But what time “really” looks like may be different from how we experience it every day.
The job of science is to remove as much bias and error from what’s “real.” As far as we can tell, time is real! But as far as what it “really looks like,” it’s hard to know. We may never be sure, but I guarantee you that scientists won’t ever stop trying to figure it out.
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Kellie Jaremko answered on 28 Apr 2016:
Time is relative to how each person experiences it. As humans on earth we have created rules about how time works that everyone follows. As Jonathan said time in space may be different and it is hard to define what the truth is everywhere.
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Stephanie Moon answered on 28 Apr 2016:
I totally agree with Jonathan and Kellie- it’s a hard topic to think about, and I bet humans will have more insight into what time and space are and how they work someday!
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Melissa Wilson Sayres answered on 30 Apr 2016:
Super great discussion here!
Time is something I’m very interested in, especially in how we use it to understand when, whether, and how different populations became new species. There are huge scientific investigations trying to understand when species diverged from each other – you can even put in your favorite species to TimeTree.org to see what others have found out: http://www.timetree.org
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Kevin Baker answered on 1 May 2016:
Jonathan has an excellent answer! Time was “created” by humans in that we can measure time. We made clocks and determined what seconds, minutes, hours, and days are. But it is important to note that “time” is not just a scientific discussion, it involves a lot of philosophy as well. Especially when talking about the existence of it.
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