Time As We Know It

I have always found it difficult to understand the truth about time. Does time differ in different places? Has the value of time changed according to our perspectives through the different ages? 

 

I have noticed that in the touristic city such as Marrakech in Morocco, people don’t need to use their watch. They start work at dawn and they finish at the set of sun. They are calm and more relaxed. When I was there I thought time was very slow. However, in the big cities, like Casablanca, people stress out more about time. People here work all day non-stop. They are nervous and run very fast. Their needs are bigger than their resources. Time seems to pass quickly.

 

When we were children or when having a fun time at a party with friends, we have a good time, we feel that time passes fast. Although, when we are experiencing difficult moments; sickness, sadness, pain or even passing an exam, we have a tough time …we feel as though time seems to stop. 

 

In addition, time for a researcher means everything to them; there’s never enough. Whereas a person who is always thinking about his past or taking a rest all day on the couch to kill time, has much more than he can handle. 

 

I really wished to know the truth of time, so I asked my best friend Ali, who is a geek in geological science and has a reputation as a first-rate leader in astronomy in our country, too. He has a wealth of knowledge.

He is the kindest person I have ever met. I’m eternally grateful for to know him. One thing we have in common is our love for learning new things in science. It’s awesome working on the cutting edge of science with him.

 

Mr. Ali is obviously very smart and fierce. We get along well with each other and enjoy spending time together on weekends as well. He is eager to talk about physics related subjects. It doesn’t take long for us to fall deeply into an amazing conversation.

 

 

 

“Does time differ through the different ages?” I asked Mr. Ali.

 

We have never really had a reference for the beginning of time. Our time has not had a beginning that we are aware of. All we know is that time began with the Big Bang, which occurred 13.7 billion years ago. We believe that Our God comes from before this event and nothing was there before Him; since He is the first of all events.

 

Do you ever remember yourself when you were a baby, never. After twenty years, we start to love our time more since we start to set goals in this life-- a degree, job, wife, children…

 

Though, we lose a third of our life through sleep, since we sleep almost eight hours a day

 

Overall, each person has time to sleep, a childhood, a place where he lives, a lifestyle, a job, different activities, therefore he has his own time. Needless to say, each person’s time and his age should be different to others, even if, they have the same birthday”. Ali said.

 

“Does time differ in different places on the Earth?” I said.

 

“Sure, our time is not absolute. From as far back as we can remember, we measure time with the day, the morning, the afternoon and the evening. Today, our measure of time is equated to the number of oscillations of a piece of natural stone like quartz, but the frequency of oscillations of the cesium atom is the highest in Earth. Cesium oscillates 9 billion times a second, so we have adapted it to measure each second worldwide. It is the most accurate measurement of time on Earth. This time tells us what time it is, but it doesn’t tell us the truth about time.

 

 

 “How about time on the different planets in our solar system,” I said.

 

“Time changes in different planets in our solar system. One year in Mercury is 87.969 Earth days, but One year in Pluto is more than two hundred Earth years.”

 

I have my first science-fictional idea to be alive as long as possible on this Earth by living one day here and one year on the furthest Planet in the solar system, Pluto. In this case, the rest of my life will last countless years and I will be very fortunate.

 

Accepting that I could travel to Pluto at the speed of light, which is 299 792.458 Km/s. My trip would take just four hours and I would stay there one year. We know that one year in Pluto lasts more than two hundred years in Earth. So, I will have lived for many generations on Earth. However, on my return to Earth, I would be too exhausted to explain to everyone who I am. I would be an oddity here. Maybe, I would expect to find a world with more intelligent people that would certainly be far ahead of me in advanced inventions and a much better way of living that I would absolutely not able to live with. Could we imagine a person who lived in 1800 coming forward to 2015? Could he use our cell phones, our technology, never? He would be so out of place and time. 

 

Anyway, I would find myself depressed and alone for the first time ever. Then I could not stand this turning point in my life. It would be hard for me to lose all my family, my friends at one time. I would feel sorry for myself. The crazy excitement at the beginning would surely change into the unpleasant feeling of sadness. I would be extremely disappointed, but the shock from this return would scare me so badly that I would never want to take a risk to travel to Pluto in the first place. 

 

Thinking about the outpouring of love from my mom, my dad, my family and my relationships with others makes me pretty emotional and feel ashamed of myself. Then I would break into tears. Because of this I’d rather live the rest of my life with my family, my friends than live many generations into trouble. The truth of time, in this case, is more relational and emotional than scientific or anything else.

 

“All right, if a star is about 600 000 km far from us, its light takes 2 seconds to get to Earth. No engine has been able to use this light speed, yet. It’s unbelievable, even for our future. 

 

We also know that more than 200 km from Earth the atmosphere disappears along with the freshness of the morning air. In space, everything lives in darkness. Even the solar system altogether revolves in the blackness. No birds fly in the sky, nor are there green places, or blue seas. So you could not live there one year with your weak body that was created to live only on this earth.”

 

My science-fictional idea, to live in different times and different places never comes true and remains a dream. Needless to say, it can be done only in the sci-fi movies. I had put myself into a hopeless situation, one that man could ever imagine, so I’d better keep my mind off this idea, as well and now I can’t help laughing at myself.

 

“How about time in another Galaxy,” I Said.

 

“Astronomers have found more than 200 000 Galaxies in our universe. In each Galaxy, there are many stars bigger than our sun, from which we will get their light, many light years from now. They have a life cycle like us. My God, who is alive in all time, birthed each star with hydrogen and helium gas.  When it’s alive we receive its light shining brightly in the night sky.

 

Before stars die, they are gathered together in a single structure. All their features protons, electrons are melted into a neutron. Then, when they lose their light, we can hear a pulsar sound, via a special apparatus, like someone knocking on a door. The sound becomes louder and louder before a colossal explosion, in which many of the pieces of the star are blown apart into space. With the special device, we can watch the passing of the star like a red rose in the sky. It’s the most magnificent thing I have ever seen.

 

All of sudden, a black hole appears at the center of the star and it with all its debris is swallowed up in order to wash our sky and protect our solar system. The black hole has a billion times more gravity than on earth per one cm squared. It’s so small and dense that nothing at all can escape from its surface - not even light. It’s an incredible deed.

 

  

In 2006, NASA launched a craft designed to travel to Pluto to take pictures. Nine years later we have just taken the first pictures of the furthest planet in our solar system. 

 

We will not able to know how many planets there are in other Galaxies because it would take many light years to get the nearest one. A light year equals light speed along an earth year.

 

Time in our universe is accumulated by using light speed. And each star lives exactly in the place that was traced out by Our God. Otherwise, His management of His entire universe would lose existence and time. The universe is like a carbon atom. It’s tightly unified. Our solar system is like an atom in this universe, all worked out for our best,” Ali said.

 

“You said that the stars could explode in space, how about the future of our star the sun?” I said.

 

“Since my God is the last one and there is no one after Him, when My God wills the sun like other stars to die, the volume of it will become bigger and bigger until the earth, the moon, mercury,….all the nine planets of our solar system will be enveloped by it. At that moment, the black hole produced by the sun will destroy all those planets of the solar system.

 

The universe will finish like it began. As though there had been no time and nothing.

 

Later Our God will create another earth not like this and another sky to reward the people who were spent their time well.

 

Know one truth. Our time is just a fraction of a second of the absolute time. All that is important is how we have used this gift of time given to us and whether we were on the right track. Truth is the measure of our time and of the deeds we leave behind on this earth.

 

Not missing this awesome moment to live gives us access to unlimited time. 

 

When we reach eternal life, it will be the end of time as we know it; time which we use today. In the hereafter, we will live in an absolute time which does not have even one second in the past or in the future. 

                               

©2015 Dakir Abderrahmane

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

I enjoyed the way you discussed and defined time.
"Know one truth. Our time is just a fraction of a second of the absolute time. All that is important is how we have used this gift of time given to us and whether we were on the right track. Truth is the measure of our time and of the deeds we leave behind on this earth."
I do believe our time is our most valuable item. Use it wisely.
Coyote

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for your comment.

[Coyote Poetry]

You are welcome my writer friend.

[Teny Johnson]

wow! brave article base on time. this exposed alot to me and i must confess its very helpful to knowledge tfs

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for your comment.

[Elle]

Wow! Great story, well done!

[UDENTA IFEANYICHUKWU GOODLUCK MALACHI]

Wow! what a great piece....
That's wonderful.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for your comment.

[Narayan Lama Aviral Yatree]

I cursorily read your article . It is nice . You have the writing fluency that a writer requires . What your story tries to expose is why time is mysterious . You have said from a right angle that it is difficult to understand time . I think Einstine's theory of relativity helps us to understand its fathomless value. In the same way your story also throws insightful light into the truth about time. When we are busy in something interesting , we feel that time is moving at the speed of a bullet but when we are in boredom , our feeling is that time has almost stopped to move . The reality is that time moves at the same speed everywhere but it never waits for anyone . So we must be able to grasp every opportunity that time brings for us . I would like to see your further progress in writing . Please move on to the next corner of life and create another good piece .

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for your comment.

[Sundar Momin]

I think we use "time" as a concept to measure present, past & future.

[Deborah G. Adams]

It is astonishing how I was thinking the other day about the idea of time, who decides what day it is, what time it is. Why today is called Monday or The beginning of the week? It is obvious how well organised is our clock but can we say the same about our time? Do we really need it to be organised? And if so, who decides what means organised in our life? The fact that we don't know when is our last second, made me only stop thinking and planning and just live that second, being sure that I put my own steps and breath into it. Thank you for what you wrote. Made me feel grateful once again by the thought that my clock is doing more than tic tac.

[Roughtrade Gibson]

Not my thing too many references to popular science.

[Robert Parlange]

Back in the 70s our ship crossed the International Date Line. Suddenly we had all traveled one day into the future. There were no physical changes and I didn't feel one day older. Milk didn't sour and the food was still fresh. What gives? All this was negated when we crossed it again on the way back home.

Time is an incredible invention of human beings. It doesn't really exits, although I suppose you can measure the decay of certain elements and call that “time.” But for the most part it is still just a frame of reference.

Human beings are the only creatures on Earth who identify time. My dog knew when it was feeding time, but I think that was more from his body functions than a realization of events.

When I worked as a speech therapist in public schools, I was obsessed with time: therapy sessions, meetings, parent conferences.

Later I learned to relax. I don't carry a watch anymore, my phone has the time. Although, since I started NANOWRIMO I've been very much aware of the passage of time.

Oh well, I guess we can't escape the tyranny of time.

Nice work. Much to think about.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[Hedyeh Gr]

Very nice to see that you backed up some of your points with valid scientific research. Time truly is our most valuable possession and we must learn to use it to its full potential.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[kimberli Leacock]

Very interesting concept, you asked and answered what most people wonder but never discuss. Keep up the good work.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[wordman]

a interesting theme,i think it`s just the people,and how they live there lives
if they feel the need to rush,older people go to bed early and get up early.don`t think they really rush,but yet maybe they do.a good question ! we have so much time allotted to us at birth ,i guess we feel that.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[Dead]

This is really good :)

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[ASPAR (A Sol Poet Arnay..]

An interesting discussion, although time is an illusion. nicely written thank you for sharing & inviting me to read your work..

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for reading.

[Miss Jessy]

Indeed it was a great story of yours. Enjoyed it and I learn some things about time. :)

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for reading.

[Dr. Wood ?]

it is true that time has different meanings across the globe and is far more important to some of us. I always think of time as an ocean in which we all are swimming. Some of us are wearing gold and some of us are naked but we all swim at exactly the same pace

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[Seanalee La Vonne]

Interesting perspective here. I like it

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[Siobhan]

What an interesting read. I often ponder the idea myself, just not with such depth. The concept and writing style compelled me to read on with genuine interest. Thank you for sharing.

Siobhan

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[Siobhan]

Your most welcome.