A Theory of Time (May 26, 2005)

Since I was in High School I have had a theory about time that I have not fully developed, in part because my understanding of theoretical physics was limited. Currently, I am somewhat sceptical of theoretical physics beyond Special Relativity. That is, General Relativity is based on a mixing of Newton's Theory and Special Relativity. The result is that many things can be shown to be true which may or may not be true. Pretty soon, the results are all no more than accurate than that of a crackpot.

However, the results have the blessing of the Scientific heirarchy, and are therefore never questioned. I have yet to come to grips with this - some of the generally accepted theories probably are not accurate. I hope to say more on this in some other piece.

This theory is not a theory about the equations to handle time, but a theory about what time is. I'm not yet able to give a firm mathematical basis for the theory. I should also be honest in saying that I do not propose that this theory might contradict something I say elsewhere.

I will accept the idea of a Big Bang for this theory. That is, there is a beginning to time and space. Talking about the time before the Big Bang has no meaning - there was no time before the Bang.

Similarly, there is no end to the Big Bang, no Big Crunch. That is, there might be a Big Crunch, but this theory (in four dimensions) will not cover it. The Big Crunch would be a fifth dimensional phinominum.

According to Special Relativity, if there are two events, (x₁, y₁, z₁, t₁) and (x₂, y₂, z₂, t₂) then (x₁ - x₂)² + (y₁ - y₂)² + (z₁ - z₂)² - c²(t₁ - t₂)² = K. It is easy to see that K is always less than zero unless light cannot get between the two events. Also, it is common to measure time in the same units as the distance by saying the distance measurement of the time is equal to the distance light travels in that length of time. Therefore, a year is measured as one light year. So I will rewrite the equation above as (t₁ - t₂)² - (x₁ - x₂)² - (y₁ - y₂)² - (z₁ - z₂)² = K, where K is always positive.

Since I know that K is always positive, I know that K = (t₁ - t₂)² for some t. One theory I've thought about replaces the time dimension with the t, but I have not examined this possibility yet to the point I want to give the required transformation. I might say more about this in the future.

Look at the four dimensional view of the situation (where the fourth dimension is time or time). At the time of the Big Bang, the Universe is quite small, a point. From this point energy, in the form of matter, or radiation, radiates out.

Suppose that energy is traveling at the speed of light in any form. That is, what we know as stopped is really traveling out from the center at the speed of light. Further, everything is traveling at the speed of light. We think some things travel slower than the speed of light only because we are traveling in the same direction. If we assume that what we are aware of is always the universe 90 degrees from the direction we're traveling in time, then the same distance dialations as proposed in the Lorentz Contractions result.

I leave it as an exercise to the reader to do the calculation - its not difficult.

I have never been able to integrate the time part of the Lorentz Contractions into this theory. If I could it would be finished, and perhaps I'd get a Nobel Prize.

One thing this theory requires is that there is no distinction between light and matter. That is, other than the mass.

Another thing this theory predicts is that time travel is not practical. Not that it is impossible, that is for others to decide, but that it is impractical. The reason is simple. Suppose someone found a way to divert their motion by exchanging the time dimension with one of the other dimensions. Then we could travel backward or forward in time simply by traveling along that dimension.

However, to be practical, time travel needs to happen with a minimal delay. But how far would one need to travel to go back a day? This distance is stated above, one light day, or 16,094,828,203 miles, or 173.8 AU (times the distance from the earth to the sun).

To be practical, one must be able to travel some number of years, and the distance quickly becomes equivilent to inter-stellar travel.

I can also calculate the size of the Universe. That is, the volume of a four dimensional "sphere," with a radius r is 2 pi²r³. The age of the universe is estimated at about 18 billion years. (This is give or take about 50%, so it might not agree with what you've heard). Therefore the size of the universe is about 1.15 10³²cubic light years, and getting bigger.

One aspect of this theory I forgot to mention is that all the streams exist. Time is, therefore, a shell moving outward from the center at the speed of light, and nothing changes.

I might write more on this theory later.