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.

[heylel]

Time is such a vast and interesting topic. I don't think we ever really stop thinking about it. This is a very deep read, but it's wonderful, and I really enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing!

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[Michael Jacques]

Interesting concept time. But remember, time is only from ones prospective. In our solar system time is measured by the time the earth revolves around the sun, but time elsewhere outside our solar system does not conform to our earths 365 day cycle around the our sun. Something to think about. Even a light year of 186,000 miles per second is based on earth time not universal time, but it is actually our only point of reference. Thank you for allowing me to read your short story.

Michael

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you for reading.

[bisskat]

I liked the way you managed to pack the entire story into a conversation - and the concept is interesting. Only thing is you tend to use the same type of sentence a lot so maybe try twisting it about a bit? Super good story though!

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[Lepren]

Time. It's something we all interpret differently. Hell, we all interpret everything differently. Trying to state patterns and data as absolutes, it's like trying to lecture a deaf man on astrophysics. And then you take that, and mix it with religion.

I'm going to tell you my honest opinion:

You mastered pace, and executed proper pattern of thought in this piece.

It was a good read that provoked thought with every word, and supported itself.

It all pointed back to a common suggestion that you give the reader.

Problems:

You didn't need half of those statistics. It read like a lecture because of them.

It's undecided on whether it wants to be a research paper, or an anecdotal introspection.

You mixed religion and science... I never recommend this, and I think you could have cut the spiritual part out of it. If you do mix the two, I HIGHLY recommend acknowledging both sides individually before you use them together. (this will help you keep a good 25% of the 60% of the audience you would lose otherwise)

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you for your reading.

[PenguinEmpiress]

This is quite fascinating, I often thought about time and when it ends and even when in the many centuries in the future what it will be like when the sun does decide to finally go to sleep.

But the way this is written is quite intriguing and clever. Very well done, it gives you a whole new light on the situation concerning time

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[Haim Kadman]

You do express well your thoughts, use more your imagination and your feelings; and good luck dear colleague you do have it!

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[DarkBitterCoffeeAtMidni..]

Interesting I like it well thought out

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[Robyn]

This was a very interesting read. I found it very factual and I loved the way that you defined time. I believe that time is our most valuable item. Thank you for posting! I enjoyed it very much!

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[John F Carver]

I am more interested in nonphysical time which exists as a series of events occurring with no time between them, a thing only the ultimate thinker God can experience. Everything else is merely our experiencing of time a sort of illusion we can truly discuss relevantly only with those who share our mere physical experience. At the time of the judgment of all men all time ceases to figure in. Time actually occurs at once. Our understanding of events is given us by my God, the One that is Real and has a relationship with reality, the sum total of all real things to help regulate our thinking that we may come to know and interact with reality which according to my God existed at one time, he is just helping us do what we did in the time that he experienced already that we may be able to interact with reality and the One that is Real and the Truth which always leads to reality. I therefore enjoyed what I read that you wrote with enough sense to validate experience as what's important and not the illusion of time God gave us though it is not real anywhere but this dangerous portion of reality we experience on earth and share until such time as earth is destroyed and made real, both physically speaking and nonphysically speaking forever. Whether you share any of that or not is your business. I thank you for intriguing me. May my God bless you!

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[DirectTangent]

Interesting. As previously mentioned, you touch upon the relativity of time - our perception of it dependent upon our culture, our location, even our particular faith. Thought provoking. Thank you.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.