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10 Things You Never Knew About Time
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It’s something that we all live it. It rules our schedules, dictating when we work, play, eat, and sleep. We think about it constantly, but it still sneaks up on us. What is this “it� It’s time. And even though time is engrained into our daily lives, most of us probably don’t know too much about it beyond reading clocks and making itineraries. When you stop to think about the logistics of time, however, you begin to realize one thing: a lot of weird stuff goes into making up what we think of as a cold, hard fact. The following 10 facts are some of the strangest time tidbits out there.
10. Horology, the study of time devices
Yes, there is a specialty field devoted to timekeeping devices–it’s called horology. And, in fact, it’s very popular throughout the world. Horologists study everything from sundials to atomic clocks. Actually, anyone interested in time devices can be called horologists, so the field includes people like watchmakers and collectors in addition to scholars of ancient time measuring techniques. Horology is often thought of as a very intellectual field of study. In fact, horology museums and libraries devoted to timekeeping devices, especially clocks, are common the world over.
There are also many horological societies around the globe, most of which boast large memberships. A few of the biggest groups include the Antiquarian Horological Society in the United Kingdom and The National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, an American organization. Maybe you’re an horologist too. If you have a big watch collection or are just really interested in time keeping, you qualify.
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9. Some Philosophers Consider Time to be Unreal
Throughout history, there have always been a few outlying thinkers who decide that time doesn’t exist. They’ve said that time is a measure invented by humans or an illusion of the brain. In general, philosophers who think that time is unreal recognize it as an object independent of the human mind; they tend to disregard the reality of anything not rooted in the mind, hence the belief that time is made up. “Unreal†time, then, is based more on an argument about what is real and what isn’t, rather than a discussion of time’s qualities.
The unreal argument all started with Antiphon, an ancient Greek teacher and philosopher. Antiphon declared that time and reality aren’t the same things; he said that time was a concept, not to be confused with the real world. Later, another Greek philosopher, Parmenides, said that time is just an illusion. The time-is-an-illusion idea caught on; later in history, some factions of Buddhist monks adopted the same theory in their philosophy.
The most famous of the time-is-unreal philosophers is probably Immanual Kant, who, in A Critique of Pure Reason argued that time is not a substance but an element of a systematic framework used to shape human experience. Some more modern Western philosophers adhered to the illusory time idea as well, but it mostly died out after the advent of modern physics.
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8. Time Travel isn’t Just a Fictional Idea
H.G. Wells popularized traveling through time in his 1895 novel, The Time Machine. But although it is a common plot device in fiction, time travel may not be confined to the world of make believe. In fact, traveling in time is a hot topic for many physicists, and most agree that forward travel, at least, is theoretically possible. Einstein’s theory of relativity makes it seem very likely that we could travel forward in time if we could find a way to create a high enough velocity.
As far as traveling to the past goes, physicists are stumped. Some say the past time travel could be possible, but that direction is far more problematic. Theoretically, accelerating space faster than time would result in backward time travel, but philosophers aren’t sure if that would be possible. To travel backward in time would mean to violate the laws of cause and effect, and scientists don’t know if the laws of physics would allow it. The theory of time travel remains unproven. We just don’t know if we could move in time or not. But, for now at least, the possibility is still out there. The experience of time travel, however, is better left for fiction.
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7. It’s all in our Perception
Most people think of time in terms of past, present, and future. But although this concept seems like an undeniable truth, it’s actually culturally related. The Hopi people of the American Southwest originally had no words for time as we know it. They thought of time as circular; in that view, there is no past or present because the circle of time has no end. As we move through life, we experience many ages, all of which repeat for other people as they go through their own lives.
Other cultures also subscribed to the circular time outlook, including the Mayans, ancient Hindi speakers, Buddhists, and the Incans. Interestingly, these cultural groups were some of the first to invent calendars. Could it be that they were onto something?
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6. The Power of Cesium
Cesium is one of the most important elements in your day-to-day life, but you’ve probably never even heard of it beyond looking at its box on the periodic table. What’s so great about this element? It turns out that the unchanging transition period of a cesium atom is exactly equivalent to one second. Since 1997, cesium has been the standard for measuring time. Unlike solar or lunar-based measurements, cesium seconds don’t change with latitude or altitude. So nowadays, the official time all around the world is measured according to cesium atoms. Who knew that this little element was responsible for so much?
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