Discussing "Time for a Change: The Non-Existence of Time" by Lynds

[cam875]

I found this on the web, it was written by someone without formal physics education but I was wondering what some educated users here with a background in physics think about it. My problem with it is that he claims time doesn't exist in any perspective only this physical continuity but how can anything move since all motion is, is the amount of distance covered over a specific time interval. Also without time nothing would ever progress or evolve really from a beginning point and therefore nothing would change, also going along with why motion wouldn't work without time. I don't know maybe I missed the whole point of his essay but I am not too convinced over it. Discuss and enjoy.

Link: http://fqxi.org/data/essay-contest-files/Lynds_Time_for_a_Change__Th.pdf

 

[marcus]

I found this on the web, it was written by someone...

That's Peter Lynds. He's well known. Probably everyone here has heard of him and many will have read some newspaper article about him or one of his writings.What you found was his entry in a wellpublicized essay contest, being conducted by FQXi.
The FXQi panel of judges have indicated they are about ready to announce the winners.
In case you are curious there is a thread about the FQXi Essay Contest here:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=292645

Hey! I just saw a post of yours in another thread that indicates you might be a high school senior. or anyway taking senior math. I hope you have a good teacher and texts and are enjoying it!

From that standpoint I have to compliment you on your taste in picking Peter Lynds essay. It is entertaining with a lot of memorable quotes.
I don't know that it advances our understanding of the nature of time. But it has good general education value in the historical summaries and quotes and will definitely get people interested in the problem.

 

[Naty1]

I don't know that it advances our understanding of the nature of time.

I agree. Well written but for me not nearly as interesting as reading popular physics from a Brian Greene (Fabric of the Cosmos) or Micheo Kaku (Hyperspace) or Lee Smolin (The Trouble with Physics). I find their logic superior, explanations sinightful and far more profound...often puzzling in their implications.

Cam, if you can find a used copy/paperback (as I did) of any of these at Amazon or elswhere I'd highly recommend any books by those authors...

Also, consider Einsteins own book RELATIVITY at
http://www.bartleby.com/173/
available for free download! mostly high school math...

Time, space, and space-time too, as commonly conceived as actual physical things, do not exist. Physical continuity (i.e. the capability for events to be continuous), and as such, motion and change, do exist,

Statements like this seem superficially contradictory...and neither seems to me to stand on its own. There is no underlying, supporting logic. Events are continuous but their constituents don't exist??

While time may be a particularly frustrating enigma, so to is vacuum energy, mass, energy, space and just about everything else around us...is mass wave or particle based,etc,etc. where did all the antimatter go?? and on and on...hence my signature, below

 

[cam875]

alright thanks and yes I am enjoying high school math and physics, chemistry is neat too lol, but biology sucked(dropped it). I have begun reading the elegant universe and am a little stuck still on relativity, trying to wrap my head around it. Ill take a look at some of those books u recommend including that nice one by einstein that should help with relativity, thanks a lot for the link.

 

[Naty1]

The Elegant Universe is also excellent...I have a copy...post any quotes (with page/chapter) you'd like to discuss here on physics forums...

 

[cam875]

alright thanks, will do.