Let me start by freely admitting that I am a sadist and want to hurt your brain a little. So sit back.. brace yourself.. and know that somewhere out there I am having a little laugh knowing that you are reading this.

I have always had an interest it time. What is time? How does it affect our lives?

Let’s start with the basics. Time is a function of two things. Entropy and memory. We measure time by looking at the changes in the world around us, we remember what things were like before and measure the rate of change… and presto… you have time. We track that change in the form of clocks and recordings. But why do we do that? Primarily because memory is flawed, we need a reference point to understand the passage of time. Before clocks we had the sun and the seasons.

What could be so mind bending about that you ask? Well… the kicker is this… memory.

Memory is flawed. As is our perception based on it. As in “gawd.. that test took forever! ” or “it’s over already? But we just started! “.

Did time speed up or slow down? No? Are you shure? If your whole concept of the passage of time is based around your experience of things moving or changing and all change happens at a certain measurable rate how would you know if time moved faster or slower? Only by observing from a perspective not effected by time could you notice time speeding up or slowing down. And since this is not possible because we ourselves are within and affected by time it is impossible for us to persevere changes in the rate that time passes. If time moves faster then everything moves faster. Our perception of time included. So we would not notice any change.

Ok.. you got all that? Feel the headache comeing on? Oh.. but I am not done…

As the theory of relativity explains, time and space are linked. When something moves at a speed close to that of light the time of the object slows down relative to the passage of time for slower moving objects. It’s the classic scifi trope of spaceship flying close to the speed of light comes back to earth thinking an hour has passed and finds the earth ruled by techno nazi’s or something. Relative mass also increases as you approach the speed of light. Time is also affected by gravity. We see this in the warping of spacetime around a black hole. So how do we know if the reverse is also true? That gravity is affected by time? I believe it is.. and I can prove it. Time moves faster and slower and we dont notice. However.. time moving faster also affects gravity. Just as an objects speed affects time. And that’s why it’s hard to drag yourself out of bed after a long night.

Wait for it…. and…. yup.. there it is… told you I was going to hurt your brain.

Best wishes -SirHanz