Does Time Exist? How Do We Know?

Time Space Cosmos Concept

How do we know that time exists?

Our entire lives are regulated by clocks, but what they measure is less certain. How can we be sure that time actually exists? It’s time to talk to an expert, Kazuya Koyama.

The alarm goes off in the morning. You catch your morning train to the office. You take a lunch break. You catch your evening train back. You go for an hour’s run. Eat dinner. Go to bed. Repeat. Birthdays are celebrated, anniversaries chronicled, deaths commemorated. New countries are born, empires rise and fall.

The whole of human existence is bound to the passage of time. However, we can’t see it and we can’t touch it. So, how do we know that it’s really there?

“In physics, we have what we call the idea of ‘absolute time’ and it’s used to describe different changes as a sequence of events,” Koyama begins. “We use Newtonian physics to describe how things move, and time is an essential element of this.” Koyama is a Professor of Cosmology in the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth.

To this day, classic Newtonian thought on time – where time is constant throughout the universe – is still a good approximation of how humans experience time in their daily lives. We all experience time in the same way and we all synchronize our clocks in the same way, no matter where we are in the world, whether that be London, Tokyo, New York, or Buenos Aires.

There’s no time without space

Physicists though have discovered that time can actually behave differently and is not as consistent as Newton thought.

“When we speak of time, we need to think of space as well – they come in a package together,” Koyama says. “We cannot disconnect the two, and the way that an object moves through space determines how it experiences time.”

In short, the time you experience depends on your velocity through space as the observer. This works as outlined through Einstein’s special relativity, a theory of how speed impacts mass, time, and space. Additionally, according to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the gravity of a massive object can impact how quickly time passes. Many experiments have been undertaken that have since proven this to be true.

Physicists have even found that black holes warp the immediate space-time around them due to their immense gravitational fields. Supported by the European Research Council, Koyama continues to investigate this theory.

“A good, solid example to get your head around all of this is to look at how we use GPS,” Koyama continues. “GPS works due to a network of satellites orbiting the Earth. They’re placed at a very high altitude and thus the gravity they experience is weaker. Therefore, time should actually go faster for them than it does for us on the ground, where we experience higher gravity. But because the satellites are traveling at very high speeds around the planet, this in effect helps to slow time down, compensating for the lack of gravity.”

Understanding how these two effects work and influence each other is essential for ensuring that the global GPS network functions correctly. And a crucial ingredient in this is a consistent theory of time that explains how objects move. So clocks aren’t telling us falsehoods: time indeed exists outside of our own perception.

Could we ever go backward in time?

Finally, the question of whether time travel could one day be possible had to be put before Koyama. As a professor of cosmology at the University of Portsmouth, he is best placed to tell us the truth.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you but for time travel to be possible, we would need to discover a completely new type of matter that has the power to change the curvature of time and space,” Koyama says. “Such matter would require properties that simply do not exist in nature. We physicists strongly believe that going back to the past is simply impossible – but it’s nice to fantasize about it.”

Click here to find out more about Koyama’s research: Challenging the general theory of relativity

11 Comments on "Does Time Exist? How Do We Know?"

  1. Time is a concept, not a ‘thing’ that can have existence. All processes proceed in the present moment. Our theories about time, like all our ideas, are recorded, and are reviewed and revised or rejected by thought processes, always in the present moment. We call time a dimension because temporality appears similar to dimensionality. We don’t actually measure time. We compare observed portions of processes to other processes which have frequency, or a constant behavior: clocks, orbiting planets, and biorhythms are a few examples. No process is measurable except by comparison with some other process. And comparison is performed in the present moment. Because ‘time’ is not a dimension, neither we, or any real objects, may travel along it. We should accept that time is simply an extremely handy illusion. The experience, and the thrill, are in the Now.

    • We are only aware of time after it comes into existence. Even if I look at a painting on the wall of my apartment; the light which I see takes a small but measurable time to reach my eyes and my brain takes a small but measurable time to process the signals from my eyes. So, the painting I see is one that existed in the past. And I can never sense anything that happens NOW.
      However, being the clever little devils we are we have created the concept of NOW which we can use to give us the illusion of control. We call it free will. But, in a strange coincidence our illusions of free will and NOW, have made us aware of the motion of the Universe (even though we can’t see it) and the potential of affecting that motion to achieve results in the future. We do this by developing plans, hopes, aspirations, etc. When the Universe moves we function as determining factors among all the other determining factors in the Universe. In this way we have cleverly convinced ourselves that we have free will; but we still achieve some of the results we want.
      This would mean that only past time exists; but it is interesting to consider all the strange concepts of time that have arisen. I have already discussed the simple concepts of NOW and future time (which doesn’t exist; but is only possible). However, there is this concept that time is a dimension and strangely enough that time passes at different rates under different circumstances. There is also the concept that time and space are a continuum.
      First of all, I bought two cartons of milk a week ago. I put one in the fridge and being old and forgetful, I left the other one on the kitchen counter. There’s good news and bad news about this situation. The bad news is that the carton on the counter has gone bad, while the carton in the fridge is still fine. The good news is that I discovered my refrigerator is a time machine. Time passed more slowly in the fridge. Or did it pass more quickly on the counter?
      All the examples of time passing at a different rate involve similar circumstances and they all involved the use of a time measuring device made by us. How accurate are our measuring devices? We once measuring time with sundials – not very accurate. Then we had pendulum clocks – better but still not great when in motion. We’ve used various materials to get us to the point of atomic clocks which only lose 1 second every 360 million years. But they still measure time differently when in motion. Now you can conclude that time runs at different speeds under different circumstances or you can conclude that we’re just not very good at measuring time. Personally, I think the entire universe moves and time (past time) comes into existence.
      As far as time and space being a continuum, my conclusion is that they are exactly the opposite – a discontinuum. The Universe doesn’t exist in time and time only comes into existence when the Universe is no longer there. This rather bungs up the concept that time is a dimension.

    • 100%.

      Maybe the measurement of “time”, from the perspective of existence (nature) is a measurement of intelligence, with animals, humans, and AI being signposts. Maybe existence exists to learn.

  2. JEFFREY D MIKA | August 20, 2022 at 7:45 pm | Reply

    I say time is only a relative perception of one “thing” to another..without at least two functions of relative comparison time does not exist…so..it would be a perception of the human condition..without that perception there is no past and no future..just a stationary dynamic..since we can’t become beings with alternate senses..so called “time” will always exist for us !!..

  3. time a concept was created by man to solve a every day problem.

    • Kenneth Kussmann | August 26, 2022 at 10:38 am | Reply

      Absolutely correct!
      A simple riddle/answer answers the question of time.
      “What is it that is immovable and never at rest?
      The present is immovable and the never at rest part is the present – presenting! Thought as memory can be considered as time that is necessary of course for biological survival. It measures the movement of energy/matter from one location to another in the eternal present. Einstein’s equations still work.

  4. Excellent response.

  5. Charles G. Shaver | August 21, 2022 at 9:33 am | Reply

    Space just is and time just isn’t: based upon particular personal ‘insights’ in 2009 (e.g. Nikola Tesla and the 3-phase AC electric motor, in his day), General Relativity still standing, in my model of the universe some still unidentified stimulus induces pulsing directional lines of gravity force to radiate from all objects in generally spherical fields of decreasing density and strength and, therefore, what is generally labeled as “time” is actually an incredibility rapid series of incredibly brief “now moments” interspaced with a probably equal number of incredibly brief “intervals.” When scientists demonstrate that time moving at high speed at a high altitude slows down, they are actually proving that clocks (even atomic ones) slow down when forced to move more rapidly through the “drag” of even fewer lines of still dense gravity force. Consequently, all estimates of the age and size of the universe need to be recalculated and, based upon the inverse-square law, what appears to be “gravity waves” in “space-time” needs to be reexamined, as there are too few individual lines of gravity force in deep space for any gravity waves to exist, let alone travel, to a very geologically active planet with only ground-based detectors available to try to sense them.

  6. So you need to demonstrate the truth of your “insights.”

    • Charles G. Shaver | August 22, 2022 at 8:50 am | Reply

      Fair enough, John. My ‘insight’ in 2009 was of the true nature of gravity, a mental image of the whole earth with it’s lines of gravity force radiating into space. It took me until 2012 to devise and video tape an experiment with rotating wheels I thought would prove it to others. The few others that viewed and mostly criticized the video on YouTube (now “@charlesgshaver” on Odysee dot com) preferred to accept labels like “gyroscopic effect” and “precession” to visualizing pulsating directional lines of force at work, like blades of a boat motor propeller churning in a body of water. As with plenty of space scientists compelled to analyze gravity and time from within earth’s strong field of gravity, and as a former industrial electrician applying logic to my lay findings, I simply deduced it was the pulsing nature of lines of gravity force that caused photons, electrons and small molecules to appear as waves in double slit experiments. Not only seeing but ‘feeling’ the effect of pulsing lines of gravity force involving rotating wheels in that first and subsequent experiments, I deduced the motion of a clock would slow down if it too were artificially made to traverse additional lines of gravity force as high up in a tall building and/or on an aircraft going around the world. Experiments with nearly identical digital watches synchronized and mounted on a ceiling fan’s blades were inconclusive due to too little angular velocity and insufficient duration of the experiment. Not exactly proof but my primary interest was and is addressing chronic health problems, with some about that on the “About” page of my newer video channel. Thanks for the additional intellectual stimulation.

  7. … “I’m sorry to disappoint you but for time travel to be possible,”
    This poofs that quantum things are just a bunch of… or is it in contradiction with it…

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