🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Sep29.171545.806@prim> prim!dave@germany.eu.net (Dave Griffiths) writes:

>The wierdest thing about time is the fact that you can sit there and
>observe it flowing at a certain "rate". 

Really?  How?  

Imagine doing this and measuring this rate precisely.  How would you do
it?  What would you get - one second per second?

>If you imagine our four dimensional
>universe as being like a reel of film, why does a character in any one
>frame have the impression that he is travelling in a particular direction
>with a particular speed through the film? To be aware of time flowing
>almost seems to require one to be outside it.

Time has puzzled people for a long time.  We are so used to being within
spacetime that when we imagine ourselves outside it, watching peoples
wormlines as if they were carved in a block of glass, we feel the 
need to imagine a "hypertime" to keep track of the rate at which the 
"now" slides along these worldlines like a glowing spot.  This is NOT
the right way to think of it.  Instead, ponder that block of glass
and the worldlines of all the people in it, the worldlines of the 
photons going from the Sun to their eyes (let's leave QM out for now!!),
the worldlines of the electrons moving in their brains, etc., until
you see how "from within" that spacetime could seem just like our world.  

It's only when you spend hours doing this that you really understand
the concept of spacetime at a gut level.  At least that was the case
for me.