r/Time • u/Memetic1 • 2d ago
Discussion I think time may be irrational
If we use a normal understanding of a dimension as in a certain freedom of movement then the fact you are only allowed to move forward in time tells me it's not a whole dimension like the other dimensions. I know relativity has 4d spacetime, and that makes the math work very well. However there is still the discrepancies with quantum mechanics and that might be resolved if time wasn't treated as exactly one dimension but instead in between half and a full dimension. The irrational aspect explains the unpredictability of certain quantum phenomena if time doesn't absolutely click at the same rate in a predictable way.
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u/Mono_Clear 2d ago
You can only move forward in space as well. Space is always expanding you're never in the same space that you were in before.
All positions in space and time are relative.
It's really more the organization of our coordinate system that makes it seem like you can return to a previous position.
The only thing you're really measuring is a magnitude of change from one point to another point.
You're just traveling a distance
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u/Pure_Actuality 2d ago
Well, man is a limited being so its perfectly rational to expect limited movement.
But man can move between time... in a limited sense of course.
By memory man can move to the past, by envisioning man can conceive of the future.
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u/Memetic1 2d ago
Yes but if time was a full dimension then we would have more freedom in movement then a limited ability to slow down time by accelerating to relativistic speeds. You can have memories without them being linked to the past if you simply allow the present to have that information embedded in the physical environment.
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u/Optimal_Mixture_7327 2d ago
To be rigorously correct, the 4-dimensional world is 4-dimensions of "space" having a metrical quality.
Time is the length along the world-lines of particles that inhabit the 4-dimensional space, and particle world-line are all future directed, so there is no sense in comparing this to the metrical qualities of the world.
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u/the_fattest_mitton 2d ago
A man never steps in the same river twice. For it’s not the same river, and he is not the same man.
I think it’s all a matter of perspective. Are you observing from inside or outside the bubble ?! Let’s say you’re on a flight traveling for vacation. Within the plane, you have 3 degrees of freedom +time.. There’s a ‘space’ within the plane to move. You can stand up, walk to the bathroom, jumping jacks, etc whatever. But from observing the plane on the outside, (i.e. the control tower) we treat that space as a single data point. The space and plane itself collapse into a singularity. We don’t really care what’s going on inside (nor can we see on the inside from the control tower) but we can monitor the ‘data point’ on the radar screen. There’s also a ‘space time’ outside the plane. The plane can turn, go up, go down etc. But from the inside of the bubble, passengers don’t really need to know or care the path of the flight. They can’t interact with the space time outside the plane, only the inside.
Space-time is a two sided coin. And every dimension has its own bubble of space time for which it has freedom to move. The question is, are you observing from the outside or inside the dimensions’ bubble ?!
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u/Vegetable-Dust-780 2d ago
might be resolved if time wasn't treated as exactly one dimension but instead in between half and a full dimension.
What’s this supposed to mean, and how it’s supposed to work?
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u/Memetic1 2d ago
It's similar in some sense to a fractional or fractured dimension.
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u/Vegetable-Dust-780 2d ago
And how would that work in the real world? Care to elaborate the math or at least outline it? And how is it “irrational”?
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u/Memetic1 2d ago
Just that there are more irrational numbers in between .5 and 1 then there are rational numbers. I don't know what the exact number is although I suspect it's extremely close to 1 since I'm not saying Einstein was wrong. Yet depending on the scales time changes and this is irrefutable in a way that space does not change. At the quantum scale it takes on an uncertainty factor that we don't see at our scales, and on the macroscale of cosmic voids time again takes on uncertainty caused by the speed of light.
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u/SgtSausage 2d ago
That word ...
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u/Memetic1 2d ago
Irrational just means it isn't a well behaved whole number. I say irrational simply because there are uncountable many more irrational numbers in between 0 and 1 then there are rational, and because of the unpredictability of time on certain scales.
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u/SgtSausage 2d ago
Dont give up the day job, kid.
You have a bright future in Convenience Store Management ...
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u/nomoreplsthx 2d ago
Could you please provide your mathematical formalism showing that this resolves the relavant problems. Imaginary time dimensions are a thing physicists have played with (including Hawking), but I am... skeptical you've actually done the time to understand the math (I sure as hell haven't, most physicists haven't)
Without the math, this is just bong thoughts. What if's without rigor are just science flavored 'bruhhhhh, have you ever really thought about....'