Time exists objectively. The concept of time is the result of human understanding, induction and description of nature. In China, its original meaning refers to the change of seasons or the reincarnation of the sun's position on the ecliptic. "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" says: Four o'clock is also four o'clock; "Guanzi Shanzhong" said: When, so remember the year. With the deepening of understanding, the concept of time covers all tangible and intangible movements. There is a comment in the preface to Mencius: "It is said that time is also a branch of the five elements." Visible tense is used to describe the unified attribute of all sports processes, which is the connotation of tense. Because the problems that people studied in ancient China were basically macroscopic, rough and slow-paced, and they only paid attention to the problem of "time". Later, the concept of "time" was added to study fast and instantaneous objects. Thus, time covers the continuous state and instantaneous state of the movement process, and its connotation is finally enriched and perfected, and the word "time" is finally finalized.

At present, the most widely accepted physical theory about time is Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. In the theory of relativity, time and space together constitute a four-dimensional space-time and constitute the basic structure of the universe. Time and space are not absolute, and the passage of time measured by observers with different relative speeds or different space-time structures is different. Special relativity predicts that the time of a clock with relative motion will pass slower than that of another clock at rest. In addition, the general theory of relativity predicts that the gravitational field generated by mass will distort the space-time structure, and the time delay of clocks near large masses (such as black holes) is slower than that far away from them. The existing instruments have confirmed the accurate prediction of time by these theories of relativity, and the results have been applied to the global positioning system.

As far as today's physical theory is concerned, time is continuous, uninterrupted and has no quantum characteristics. However, some unproven theories, such as quantum gravity theory, string theory and M theory, try to combine relativity with quantum mechanics and predict that time is discontinuous and has quantum characteristics. Some theories speculate that Planck time may be the smallest unit of time.

According to the Einstein equation in general relativity solved by Stephen W Hawking, it shows that the time of the universe has a starting point, starting from the Big Bang (or BIGBANG), and the time before that is meaningless. And matter and time and space must coexist. Without matter, time is meaningless.

Ever since the advent of mankind, people have known that time is irreversible. People are born and die, and there is no other way. The glass bottle fell to the ground and broke, but none of the broken bottles jumped up from the ground to make it complete. From the point of view of classical mechanics, the irreversibility of time cannot be explained. There is no substantial difference in the process of reverse elastic collision between two particles. The irreversibility of time can only be explained theoretically from the viewpoint of statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics says that in a closed system (we can regard the universe as the largest possible closed system), entropy can only increase, but not decrease. The entropy in the universe can't decrease after it increases, so time is irreversible.

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[Edit this paragraph] What is the essence of "time"?

The "essence" of "time" is a process of "leading" ("leading event"); Everything in nature has something to guide their existence, which we call "guiding existence" for short; It is "essence" and "law" that guide the existence of things for the first time. For example, we record the leading length of the earth's "one revolution" 24 hours a day, and one year is the length of "one revolution". And each "guide" (guide individual) has its own "guide"! For example, we can see, hear, smell, eat, think, kick and touch things at the same time, because eyes, ears, nose, mouth, brain, feet and hands are all separated. If we want to use a word to express "lead length", we call it "distance"; If you have to give a name to the "forerunner" of the whole "universe", let's call it the "main course"! Then the time to describe the whole universe is called "cosmic quantity".

If "axis" and "line" are used to describe "quantity", we will find that the "lines" used to describe "quantity" are mostly "winding" because they are "fast and slow" in the "stored process" of these events. In other words, many times "time" is "winding" rather than flat, and each "memory" has its own "time".

If we want our cells to be full of vitality after 500 years, then stop their "aging" and "freeze" them! But I'm sorry, in that case, we are dead, at least in the era when modern "thawing" technology is not enough.

● Excerpted from The Complete Works of Civilization X Files.

[Edit this paragraph] The application of time

1 time service system

Time service system is a working system to determine and broadcast accurate time. Every hour, the radio that is listening to the radio will play the sound of "beep, beep ……" so that people can check the speed of their clocks. Where does the correct time on the radio come from? It is controlled by the precise clock of the Observatory. So how does the Observatory know these precise times? As we know, the earth rotates once a day, so the stars in the sky rise and fall once a day. If the earth is regarded as a big clock, the stars in the sky are like the numbers indicating the hours on the clock face. Astronomers have well located the stars, which means that the hours on this natural clock face are very accurate. Astronomers' telescopes are like hands on a clock face. On the clock we use every day, the hands turn and the clock face does not move. Here, it seems that the hands are "motionless" and the clock face is turning. When the stars are aimed at the telescope, astronomers will know the correct time and use this time to correct the clock of the observatory. In this way, astronomers can know the correct time from the clock face of the observatory at any time, and then broadcast it on the radio at a certain time every day, such as the hour, so that we can check our clocks or meet other work needs.

Astronomical time measurement depends on the earth's rotation, and the non-uniformity of the earth's rotation makes the time (universal time) accuracy obtained by astronomical methods only reach 10-9, which cannot meet the social and economic needs in the middle of the twentieth century. A more accurate and stable time standard came into being, which is the "atomic clock". At present, all countries in the world use atomic clocks to generate and maintain standard time, that is, "time reference". Then, the time signal is transmitted to users through various means and media, including short wave, long wave, telephone network, Internet and satellite. This whole process is called "timing system".

2 time zones

24 regions of the earth's surface divided by longitude. When we saw the sun rise in Shanghai, it would take people living in Singapore half an hour to see the sun rise. Residents of London, England are still asleep, and it will take 8 hours to see the sun. People all over the world, if they use their local time in their life and work, will bring a lot of inconvenience and difficulties to their daily life and transportation. In order to take care of the convenience of use in various regions and facilitate people from other places to take their local conversion of time to other places. Relevant international conferences decided to divide the earth's surface into regions along the meridian from south to north, and stipulated that the time difference between adjacent regions was 1 hour. People at the eastern and western ends of the same area can see the sunrise within 1 hour at most. When people pass through an area, they will correct the clock to 1 hour (negative to the west 1 hour, positive to the east 1 hour), and when they pass through several areas, they will increase or decrease the hours. This is very convenient to use. Today, the world is divided into 24 time zones. Because in practice, 1 country or 1 province often spans two or more time zones at the same time, 1 country or 1 province is often grouped together for administrative convenience. Therefore, the time zone is not strictly divided by the north-south straight line, but by natural conditions. For example, when China has a vast territory, spanning almost five time zones, but actually only the Dongba time zone standard is used, it is based on Beijing time.

The third district

Time measured by the global unified time zone system. Whenever the sun shines, it is noon 12. But different places see sunshine at different times. For example, it is already noon in Shanghai 12, and it will take five hours for residents in Moscow to see the sunshine. It's already 2 pm in Sydney, Australia. Therefore, if local time standards are used everywhere, it will bring a lot of inconvenience to administration, transportation and daily life. In order to overcome this difficulty, astronomers came up with a solution: draw an area every 15 degrees in the longitude of the world, so there are 24 areas. Every region adopts a unified time standard, which is called "time zone". However, the difference between adjacent areas is 1 hour. When people move eastward from one area to a neighboring area, they put the clock forward 1 hour. After passing through several areas, they set the time forward for several hours. On the contrary, when people go west from one area to the neighboring area, they will put the clock back to 1 hour. After passing through several areas, they delayed the time for several hours. In transportation centers such as airports, for the convenience of passengers, maps are often used to represent the corresponding areas of major cities in the world.

4: 00 GMT

Also known as "universal time". Greenwich mean time. Nowadays, not only astronomers use GMT, but also the term often appears in newspapers and periodicals. We know that every place has its own time. If major international events are recorded in local time, it will be complicated and inconvenient, and it will be easy to make mistakes in the future. Therefore, astronomers put forward an acceptable and convenient recording method, which is based on Greenwich local time. Greenwich is the location of the former Greenwich Observatory in the southern suburbs of London, England, and the starting point of the world geographical longitude. Major events in the world are recorded in Greenwich local time. Once Greenwich Mean Time is known, it is easy for people to calculate the local time. For example, an event happened at 8 am GMT, China was in the east of England, and Beijing time was 8 hours earlier than GMT. We immediately knew that this incident happened at Beijing time 16, which is 4 pm Beijing time.

The time model I drew, Apollo's Ten Theories, has the ultimate explanation for the nature of time: time is essentially a human illusion.

The following is a serious illusion reaction.

Section 1; Determination of analysis time

Definition: Set two rectangular coordinate systems (S') and (S), where (S') is the motion system and (S) is the observation system. In (s'), the length l' is the inherent length and the time t' is the inherent time; L' and t' represent the length and time of (s') when it is stationary relative to (s); Measuring the length L' and the time t' in (s) when (s') moves relative to (s); If the measurement results are L and T, then L is the observation length, T is the observation time, and both L and T are observation values.

(1) The principle of equal space-time area-the product of length and time in the moving system (S') and the observation system (S) is the space-time area S' or S. When the moving system (S') is stationary or moving relative to the observation system (S), the space-time area remains unchanged; That is to say, for any (l', t'), the equation l't'= l t holds.

(2) Time-space deflection principle-If the moving system (S') moves relative to the observation system (S) and the relative speed is U or U' at a certain moment, the moving system (S') and the observation system (S) deflect in the direction of relative movement, and the deflection angle Q is the time-space deflection angle, and the size of the time-space deflection angle is related to the relative speed U (or U'). The principle of space-time area invariance (ⅰ) and the principle of space-time deflection (ⅱ) are the basic principles for us to study space-time problems. According to these two principles, we will find out the space-time relationship between (s') and (s).

Let the origins of (s') and (s) coincide at a certain moment, the relative velocities of (s') and (s) are U, and the directions of L and U are the same. According to principle (II), (S') and (s) are deflected to obtain the following results:

OD = OAcosq

Order: OD = l OA = l'

Then the above formula l = l'cosq

According to principle (I), the space-time area S' abco in (s') is equal to SDEFO in (s).

Therefore, t l= t'l' and t = t' (l'/l) are substituted into the formula (1- 1).

T = t'/ cosq ( 1-2)

According to principle (2), sinq =u/c, which means that the relationship cosq = l/l'= t'/t, where q is the same as that in principle (2). The two equations (1–3) and (1–4) are the basic formulas of special relativity, and they are also the starting point of analyzing space-time theory and studying space-time problems. In this article, you will gradually see the general conclusion of special relativity-the shortening of moving ruler and the delay effect of moving clock, which is precisely caused by the deflection of time and space. The contraction factor of special relativity is the deflection factor of analyzing time and space.

Let's find the velocity relationship (non-coordinate relationship) between (s') and (s):

From the formula (1- 1): l = l' cosq, we choose l 1 and l2 (l 1? l2)

Then l 1 = l' 1cosq, L2 = l' 2cosq.

Subtract L2-l1= (l' 2-l'1) cosq.

D l 2 1 = D l ' 2 1 cosq( 1-5)

When Dl2 1? At 0,

dl = dl'cosq ( 1-6)

The same principle (1-2) can also be drawn.

dt =dt'/ cosq

dt'/dt = cosq ( 1-7)

Then the equation (1-6) is differential to t.

dl/dt = cosq dl'/dt

The second section analyzes the basic properties of time and space

Space-time wave panorama

As we know, all the principles, postulates and assumptions of physics are derived from basic physical concepts. Due to different research objects, these physical concepts can be concrete or abstract. Scientists use mathematical methods to describe these concepts and use mathematical equations to calculate the relationship between various physical quantities, which means that mathematical equations in physics cannot exist independently without physical concepts. However, we find that Schrodinger equation, as one of the most important basic principles in quantum mechanics, lacks its proper physical significance. It looks more like a conclusion than a "principle" or "hypothesis" Although the Schrodinger equation has a high application value in quantum mechanics, it cannot hide the shortcomings of the Schrodinger equation as a "principle" of quantum mechanics, and we have to have some doubts about the basic project of' Quantum Mansion'. This situation also exists in the theory of relativity. How to explain the physical meaning of the ubiquitous contraction factor in relativity? General relativity defines non-inertial spacetime as Riemannian space, but since Riemannian geometry is a space with positive curvature and generalized spacetime is symmetrical, we have to ask, where is the space with negative curvature? Does God have a preference for positive curvature space? It is difficult for us to talk convincingly about the so-called "unified theory" before giving correct and reasonable answers to the above seemingly simple questions. Today, these questions have actually found answers, and the above seemingly unrelated problems can be explained by the principle of space-time deflection. This chapter is not simply to find a mathematical proof method for Schrodinger equation, but to make it based on a more solid and representative principle of time and space, which also gives us reason to look at the space-time position of all current physical theories from the concept of space-time deflection:

The independent variable q of spatio-temporal wave function defines the interval

0 y=y0 Newton's absolute spacetime theory in the first spacetime.

[0, p/2] y=y0cosq second space-time relativity (narrow sense, broad sense)

[0,+? ) y=y0coswt third spacetime quantum spacetime quantum mechanics

[2kp+p/2, 2kp+3p/2] k=0, 1, 2 ... a positive integer negative space black hole in the fourth spacetime.

The first time and space-

The first time and space is the time and space in which we live, and the concepts of the first time and space in physics are absolute time and absolute space, which have ruled mankind for thousands of years. Today, the concept of the first time and space is still affecting the way of thinking and philosophical views of human beings, because the first time and space world is a low-speed world, and almost all our physical theories are based on the' low-speed world', which is a fact that no one can change. Faced with this "reality", what physicists should do is to minimize the distance between subjective and objective.

The second time and space-

About a century ago, a great man Einstein pioneered the field of "relative time and space". Relativity holds that time and space are not absolute. Einstein found that the description of time and space is related to the relative motion between descriptors, and the concept of absolute time and space of the first time and space is no longer applicable. Several years later, he carefully designed the second space-time and described it as a curved, multidimensional and convex positive curvature space. The discovery of the second space-time is a great event in human history, which tells us the fact that at both ends of the second space-time region, one end is the first space-time and the other end is the black hole world (q=p/2) (see Chapter 1 for details), and all physical theories in black holes will fail, which is a wonderful irony for those "absolute" and "eternal" views. Unfortunately, the success of the second time and space made Einstein fall into it. He never left the second time and space until his death. He didn't discover the deflection essence of space-time and didn't realize that relative space-time is only a small part of the whole space-time belt, just as visible light is a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. When the physics circle is busy using this "master key" to open more dimension door, but all of them fail and are at a loss, the third theory of time and space-quantum mechanics has gradually improved and entered the stage of time and space. ....

The third time and space—

Quantum spacetime covers a wider range than relative spacetime. It extends the second space-time zone from [0, p/2] to [0,+? ) interval, it should be said that the first and second spacetime is a special case of the third spacetime. The establishment of the third space-time is based on a large number of experiments in the micro field, that is, particles move much faster than objects in the macro world. However, it is found that it is much more difficult to describe the motion of particles than expected. It is impossible to determine the position and momentum of particles at the same time, and the energy distribution is not continuous. Although it is true, you have to spend a lot of words to convince people who are used to the first time and space or who have just come from the second time and space, because the theoretical basis of the third time and space is not as solid as people think. "Even if this formula, don't ask why." This scene really happened in our godlike theory.

The "successful establishment" of the third space-time makes more and more scientists believe that the real "unified theory" is nothing more than unifying the first, second and third space-time in a new theory. This idea is good, but it ignores another important factor, that is, why energy is discontinuous and where is the "lost" space? Obviously, this question cannot be answered in the third space-time theory. In this paper, we already know that the discontinuity of energy is caused by the discontinuity of space, and the discontinuity of space is caused by the interval [0,+? ), its physical meaning is negative space, and the corresponding energy will be negative, which is exactly the "lost space" we are looking for. Broadly speaking, space and energy are symmetrical, but we can't measure negative space and energy. To understand them, we need to look at this problem from the standpoint of the fourth time and space.

The fourth time and space—

In recent years, concepts such as antimatter and negative space-time have gradually entered some professional books and periodicals from sci-fi works, but it takes considerable courage to admit the existence of antimatter, negative space-time and negative energy in theory, because in our view, objective existence must be real. The concept of negative space-time is obviously incompatible with the traditional concept, which is the forbidden area of classical theory, but it must not be the shackles of theoretical workers' imagination. To complete the leap from the third space-time to the fourth space-time, we must have a solid theoretical foundation. Analytic space-time theory describes the panorama from the first space-time to the fourth space-time in the simplest mathematical way, which makes us fully prepared for the objectivity of the overall existence of space-time system and provides the necessary theoretical tools. We will find that black holes lead to quantum phenomena such as wave-particle duality in measurement. If we expect to make a difference in time and space, we must abandon our original concept-'God always favors mankind'. Because the positive and negative spacetime are the same as a whole, but which side we humans think we are on.