the matter of time
DESCRIPTION
To open this interdisciplinary conference on concepts of time in the sciences, humanities, and arts, I discuss how physicists visualize time geometrically, the differences between time and space, various puzzles that physicists confront when seeking to understand time, and the question of whether time emerges from some deeper concept.TRANSCRIPT
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George Musser6 June 2009
The Matter of Time
http://www.cs.adelaide.edu.au/~paulc/physics/picasso.gif
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1. How Physicists Visualize Time
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Basic Model of Nature
The world at one
moment
The world a moment
later
Laws of physics
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Spacetime
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Spacetime
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2. Time Is Special
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Objectivity of Cause-Effect Relations
AB A
B
A B A B
A B
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3. Our Experience of Time
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Basic Mystery of Time
There’s a disconnect between time in physics and time in everyday life.
a. Arrow of time
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The Arrow of Time
Scientific American, Jun 08
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The Arrow of Time
Big Bang
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Basic Mystery of Time
There’s a disconnect between time in physics and time in everyday life.
a. Arrow of timeb. Flow of time
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Flow of Time
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Basic Mystery of Time
There’s a disconnect between time in physics and time in everyday life.
a. Arrow of timeb. Flow of timec. Problem of frozen time
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Resculpting Spacetime
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Problem of Frozen Time
Space at one
moment
Space a moment
later
General relativity
EQUIVALENT
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4. The Emergence of Time
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The Fine Structure of Spacetime
American Scientist, Nov/Dec 91
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Relational Time
t
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5. Conclusion
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Where Does Time Come From?
The everyday properties of time must emerge from physical time …
… which might itself emerge from deeper, timeless ingredients.
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http://www.timereverse.com/brochure.asp (top); http://www.motivatedphotos.com/?id=6545 (bottom)
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For More
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For a copy of the slides, visit www.strings.musser.com
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Backup Slides
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Basic Model of Nature
Initial state
Final state
Statespace
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Space and Time
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Spacetime
http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/sr/construction.html#grid
Each of us moves into the futureat his or her own pace.
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The Arrow of Time
Fresh egg
Partially broken egg
Completely broken egg
Why did it begin here?
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Where Life Fits Infood oxygen TLC
heat bodily waste
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Does Time Matter At All?
Time present and time pastAre both perhaps present in time future,And time future contained in time past.If all time is eternally presentAll time is unredeemable.
—T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets
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Emergence of Classical Spacetime
Scientific American, Jul 08
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The Tree of
Physics
Mercury Nov/Dec 97
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But that's a puzzle. The microscopic laws of physics,governing the behavior of individual objects, areperfectly reversible – they work equally well runningforwards and backwards in time.
Why is the collective behavior of macroscopic objectsirreversible, while the behavior of the individualconsitutents is perfectly reversible?
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http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boeing_737-73V_-_EasyJet_Airline_-_G-EZJI_-_LEMD.jpg (top); http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/CandlestickTelephones.jpg (bottom)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arbor_Lake-Aerial.JPG (top); http://hoboken411.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/text-messaging-at-dinner.jpg (bottom)