Abram,
With General Relativity, time is so geometrical that you can make it
circular.
(Cf the Gödel's solutions to Einstein's GR Equation, which gives hope
to some to build a time machine, and even infinite computers!).
Give me just a sufficiently massive cylinder ...
Bruno
On 06 Jan 2009, at 12:51, Bruno Marchal wrote:
>
> Abram,
>
> I agree with Brent. In relativity theory space and time are
> intermingled in a geometrical way to give the Minkowski structure.
> Actually you can make it into an Euclidian space by introducing an
> imaginary time t' = sqr(-1)*t = it. The metrics becomes dx^2 + dy^2 +
> dz^2 + dt'^2.
> In quantum mechanics the possible position of an object on a line
> gives
> rise to an hermitian space: it is infinite dimensional, but there is
> still a geometrical structure, with notions akin to angles and
> distances. Of course mathematician have far more general notion of
> dimensional spaces, some of which have nothing to do with geometry. In
> physics metrics play always some role somewhere though.
>
> Bruno
>
>
> Le 06-janv.-09, ā 02:59, Brent Meeker a écrit :
>
>>
>> Abram Demski wrote:
>>> Thomas,
>>>
>>> If time is merely an additional space dimension, why do we
>>> experience
>>> "moving" in it always and only in one direction? Why do we remember
>>> the past and not the future? Could a being move in some spatial
>>> dimension in the same way we move through time, and in doing so
>>> treat
>>> time more like we treat space? Et cetera.
>>>
>>> To my knowledge, modern physics treats many things as "dimensions":
>>> not just time and space, but also forces such as electromagnetism.
>>> This does not imply that such things are spatial in nature. A
>>> dimension is just a variable. Unless you think there is something
>>> particularly spatial about time?
>>
>> There is something spatial about time, duration is measured along
>> paths in
>> space. Coordinate time is mixed with space by Lorentz symmetries.
>> But it's
>> still different from space. Lee Smolin and Fotini Markopolo have
>> argued that
>> time must be considered fundamental (no block universe).
>>
>> Brent
>>
>>
>>>
>>
> http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
>
>
> >
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group.
To post to this group, send email to everything-list.domain.name.hidden
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscribe.domain.name.hidden
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Received on Tue Jan 06 2009 - 13:57:32 PST