Saturday, December 26, 2009

Aluratek AIRMM01 Clock Radio


Aluratek AIRMM01  Clock Radio photo








DESC: Internet Radio Alarm Clock with Built in Wifi allows you to easily access more than 11,000 radio stations in over 150 countries around the world with no monthly fees. You may also connect to a local Ethernet cable network if you prefer. You can search for Music geographically by continent/country/state or by the more than 30 different available genres including a wealth of news and sports radio stations Broadcast throughout the world.Once you find a favorite station whether is from your local country or while visiting other countries around the world simply add it to your favorites list for future easy access.

Sangean RCR-2 Clock Radio


Sangean RCR-2  Clock Radio photo








DESC: The Sangean RCR-2 AM FM Radio has a host of innovative features not found on most clock radios. This stylish radio has two alarms as well as a sleep and nap timer. Since its atomic, youll never have to worry about setting the time or date again. Wake to your favorite radio shows on time, everyday, and never miss a beat.

RCA RP5605 Clock Radio


RCA RP5605  Clock Radio photo

Sangean SANGEAN AMERICA RCR-5 DIGITAL AM/FM CLOCK RADIO WITH DUAL ALARMS


Sangean SANGEAN AMERICA RCR-5 DIGITAL AM/FM CLOCK RADIO WITH DUAL ALARMS photo








DESC: Dual Alarm Timers for both "Waking Up to Radio" and/or "Waking up to "HWS Buzzer" at different times for week days, weekends, daily or just once.

Sangean RS330 Clock Radio


Sangean RS330  Clock Radio photo








DESC: Think clock radios are inherently boring? Think again. Sangean's RS-330, looking very much like a run-of-the-mill night-table fixture, is actually a compact and unusually well-designed dual-alarm clock radio with--no kidding--decent sound quality. Separate bass and treble controls let you tailor the sound quality while the auxiliary audio input and output offer flexibility in sound sources.

Sony (ICFC180) Clock Radio


Sony (ICFC180)  Clock Radio photo








DESC: The compact ICD-C180 Clock Radio from Sony offers full features in a unique, yet fashionable design. The full-power backup alarm system keeps accurate time even during blackouts and power outages. Its internal lithium battery provides hours of power for a variety of features such as the AM/FM tuner, brightness control and extendable snooze. With an eye-catching triple-LCD alarm and time display, and the added convenience of multiple alarm settings – including radio, melody and buzzer – the ICF-C180 Clock Radio let’s you start your day off right!

Coby CR-A108 Clock Radio


Coby CR-A108  Clock Radio photo

Oregon Scientific RM313PNA Clock Radio


Oregon Scientific RM313PNA  Clock Radio photo








DESC: Projects time in soft-glowing numbers onto ceiling or wall, Automatically sets itself to the US Atomic Clock, HiGlo electro-luminescent backlight provides easy night viewing, Uses 2 AA batteries , Includes AC adapter

GPX CR2307 Clock Radio


GPX CR2307  Clock Radio photo

Sony Sony Clock Radio


Sony Sony Clock Radio photo








DESC: Always be on time with the ICF-C218 radio alarm clock! This clock design by Sony includes an analogue FM/PO tuner to wake you up to music every morning. With a calendar function, sleep function and snooze function, the ICF-C218 also includes an in-built DST (daylight saving time) function button when changing to summer or winter time. The ICF-C218 radio alarm clock comes with a security battery that saves your settings in case of power cuts.

RCA RPC100 Clock Radio


RCA RPC100  Clock Radio photo

Sony (SY-ICF-CD7000) (white) Clock Radio


Sony (SY-ICF-CD7000) (white)  Clock Radio photo




DESC: Stylish and interior conscious - distinguishes this versatile system from ordinary looking clock radios while compact styling also saves space on your nightstand

jWIN JL-CD815 Clock Radio


jWIN JL-CD815  Clock Radio photo

Sony ICFC705 Clock Radio


Sony ICFC705  Clock Radio photo








DESC: Grâce à une vaste sélection de stations de radio FM et DAB, vous pourrez vous réveiller avec votre musique préférée.

Emerson Smartset Clock Radio


Emerson Smartset  Clock Radio photo








DESC: Wake up to the soothing sounds of your favorite music with this AM/FM clock radio and programmable CD player from Emerson. Its SmartSet technology automatically sets the correct date, month, time, and year when you plug it in. Other features include a dual alarm, sleep timer, and the ability to automatically adjust for daylight savings time and leap year. The seven time zone selections cover the entire United States.

Sony (SY-ICF-CD815) Clock Radio


Sony (SY-ICF-CD815)  Clock Radio photo








DESC: Wake up to your favorite songs or your favorite morning radio show with this clock radio from Sony. It features a line-in for digital music players as well as a CD Player with CD-R/RW playback. And the innovative extendable snooze feature gives you the freedom to choose your personal snooze time instead of having to settle for the standard time intervals. Make mornings easier with Sony.

RCA RP5415 Clock Radio


RCA RP5415  Clock Radio photo








DESC: The LCD display is in a cool blue color which is light on the eyes and makes it easy to read. The clock can be adjusted to two different levels of brightness to accommodate for different lighting situations. LCD display has a digital frequency readout, so that you can precisely tune to your favorite radio station and read which station you are tuned in to. Connect your mp3 player to the audio input jack and enjoy your music anytime of the day without having to wear headphones. Alarm can be programmed so that you can choose to wake-up to the buzzer or to your favorite radio station. Alarm clock features a programmable snooze that you can set to ring between 1-30 minutes or by the default setting of every 9-minutes. Clock radio has two different alarm settings that are perfect for couples who wake at different times or for those who need a second reminder to wake in the morning.

Timex (T439S) Clock Radio


Timex (T439S)  Clock Radio photo








DESC: The dual alarm options provide you with alarms for individual wake times and individual alarm sounds. Select from blue, purple or amber Digital LCD colors for your display. This clock radio features a line-in for your CD or MP3 player, so you can wake up to your favorite tunes. The T439S features an AM/FM radio, an extra large Snooze Bar, a 90-minute Programmable sleep setting and One-touch Advance Alarm with settings for 7, 5 or 2 days. This clock radio uses an internal Lithium Battery to maintain clock and alarm operation in the event of a blackout or other power failure.

Sony ICF-CD523 Clock Radio


Sony ICF-CD523  Clock Radio photo








DESC: Enjoy your time in the kitchen with the ICF-CD523 Kitchen CD Clock Radio. Its slim, under-cabinet design saves space while its many features provide entertainment and convenience. Listen to your favorite CD track and view important information on the easy-to-read backlit LCD display. The digital synthesized AM/FM stereo tuner makes tuning-in a desired station simple and precise, with accurate drift-free tuning of AM and FM radio stations. Built-in stereo speakers separate left and right channels for pristine audio quality, with a Mega Bass® Sound System to boost bass tones for even more room-filling sound. The clear front panel is made of an easy-to-clean material and displays the date, time, alarm and one of 15 station memory presets. In case of a power failure, the ICF-CD523 has a self-powered memory back-up for your piece of mind.

Sangean Digital Am/Fm Atomic Clock Radio


Sangean Digital Am/Fm Atomic Clock Radio photo

Friday, December 25, 2009

Sony ICF-C318BLACK Clock Radio


Sony ICF-C318BLACK  Clock Radio photo




DESC: The correct EST (Eastern Standard Time) has been preset at the factory, so just plug the clock in and adjust the time zone as necessary. In the case of a power interruption, the built-in Lithium battery maintains the correct time so you don't have to re-set the clock. When Daylight Savings Time changes take place in the spring and fall each year, there is no need to adjust the clock because the built-in calendar recognizes the dates and automatically makes the proper time adjustments. Dual Alarms with Alarm Indicator permits two separate wake-up times with individual wake-up settings and confirms that the alarm has been activated to turn on at the pre-set time. Choose your own snooze time instead of being held captive by the short time intervals of other snooze times. Each press of the snooze button adds an additional 10 minutes to your total snooze time for up to a full hour of uninterrupted sleep.







Timex T158W Clock Radio


Timex T158W  Clock Radio photo


DESC: Plug your MP3 player or Portable CD Player into this clock and get high-quality sound.

Sony Sony ICFC414 AM/FM Large Display Clock Radio


Sony Sony ICFC414 AM/FM Large Display Clock Radio photo

Coby CRA79 Clock Radio


Coby CRA79  Clock Radio photo




DESC: Coby''s CRA79 digital clock combines classic features with a bold time projection display. Attractive, high-contrast design includes dial with tactile feedback and sensitive AM/FM tuner for radio listening.

GPX C389B Clock Radio


GPX C389B  Clock Radio photo


DESC: The 0.6-inch LED, soothing green display offers a pleasant encounter when you wake in the morning. Radio features an AM/FM radio with rotary tuning and volume dials. The programmable sleep feature will play the radio up to 2-hours before automatically turning off, allowing you to gently fall asleep to the radio. Alarm can be programmed so that you can choose to wake-up to the buzzer or to your favorite radio station. Alarm clock features a programmable snooze that you can set to ring between 1-30 minutes or by the default setting of every 9-minutes.

Timex 3504E Clock Radio


Timex 3504E  Clock Radio photo

Sangean ATS404 Clock Radio


Sangean ATS404  Clock Radio photo

DESC: 18 x SW, 18 x FM, 9 x AM Presets


RCA RP5405 Clock Radio


RCA RP5405  Clock Radio photo

DESC: The 0.6-inch LED, soothing green display offers a pleasant encounter when you wake in the morning. Radio features an AM/FM radio with rotary tuning and volume dials. The programmable sleep feature will play the radio up to 2-hours before automatically turning off, allowing you to gently fall asleep to the radio. Alarm can be programmed so that you can choose to wake-up to the buzzer or to your favorite radio station. Alarm clock features a programmable snooze that you can set to ring between 1-30 minutes or by the default setting of every 9-minutes.

jWIN JL-707 Clock Radio


jWIN JL-707  Clock Radio photo

DESC: 180° ''projection'' with focus adjustment Projection on/off AM/FM receiver Large LED display Snooze alarm Wake to radio or buzzer 110/220v dual voltage operation Uses 9v battery for back-up.

Memorex SpongeBob Clock Radio


Memorex SpongeBob  Clock Radio photo

Sangean Sangean WR-2 Clock Radio


Sangean Sangean WR-2  Clock Radio photo


DESC: Digital AM/FM Table Top Receiver designed to provide exceptional audio reproduction utilizing a special acoustically balanced enclosure combined with a enhanced frequency response speaker and Sangean's advanced audio circuitry providing the sound and features of a large home stereo system.


Boston Acoustics HDUOMDNT Clock Radio


Boston Acoustics HDUOMDNT  Clock Radio photo




DESC: The versatile Horizon Duo offers big-system Sound that fits virtually anywhere. With dual alarms and Boston's wrap-around Snooze Bar.The unique shape of Horizon Duo is one key to its exceptional performance. Left and right full-range speakers are isolated from each other in separate acoustic chambers for rich, distinct Stereo sound.


Boston Acoustics Horizon Solo Clock Radio


Boston Acoustics Horizon Solo  Clock Radio photo

Emerson CKS3020 Clock Radio


Emerson CKS3020  Clock Radio photo

Pure Expandable Mirror And Clock Radio All In One


Pure Expandable Mirror And Clock Radio All In One photo

Time

The flow of sand in an hourglasscan be used to keep track of elapsed time. It also concretely represents the present as being between the past and the future.

Time is a component of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects. Time has been a major subject of religion, philosophy, and science, but defining it in a non-controversial manner applicable to all fields of study has consistently eluded the greatest scholars.

In physics as well as in other sciences, time is considered one of the few fundamental quantities.[1] Time is used to define other quantities – such asvelocity – so defining time in terms of such quantities would result in circularity of definition.[2] An operational definition of time, wherein one says that observing a certain number of repetitions of one or another standard cyclical event (such as the passage of a free-swinging pendulum) constitutes one standard unit such as the second, is highly useful in the conduct of both advanced experiments and everyday affairs of life. The operational definition leaves aside the question whether there is something called time, apart from the counting activity just mentioned, that flows and that can be measured. Investigations of a single continuum called spacetime bring questions about space into questions about time, questions that have their roots in the works of early students of natural philosophy.

Among prominent philosophers, there are two distinct viewpoints on time. One view is that time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence. Time travel, in this view, becomes a possibility as other "times" persist like frames of a film strip, spread out across the time line. Sir Isaac Newton subscribed to this realist view, and hence it is sometimes referred to as Newtonian time.[3][4] The opposing view is that time does not refer to any kind of "container" that events and objects "move through", nor to any entity that "flows", but that it is instead part of a fundamental intellectual structure (together with space and number) within which humans sequence and compare events. This second view, in the tradition of Gottfried Leibniz[5] and Immanuel Kant,[6][7] holds that time is neither an event nor a thing, and thus is not itself measurable nor can it be travelled.

Temporal measurement has occupied scientists and technologists, and was a prime motivation in navigation and astronomy. Periodic events and periodic motion have long served as standards for units of time. Examples include the apparent motion of the sun across the sky, the phases of the moon, the swing of a pendulum, and the beat of a heart. Currently, the international unit of time, the second, is defined in terms of radiation emitted by caesium atoms (see below). Time is also of significant social importance, having economic value ("time is money") as well as personal value, due to an awareness of the limited time in each day and in human life spans.

Temporal measurement

Temporal measurement, or chronometry, takes two distinct period forms: the calendar, a mathematical abstraction for calculating extensive periods of time,[8] and the clock, a concrete mechanism that counts the ongoing passage of time. In day-to-day life, the clock is consulted for periods less than a day, the calendar, for periods longer than a day. Increasingly, personal electronic devices display both calendars and clocks simultaneously. The number (as on a clock dial or calendar) that marks the occurrence of a specified event as to hour or date is obtained by counting from a fiducial epoch—a central reference point.

[edit]History of the calendar

Artifacts from the Palaeolithic suggest that the moon was used to calculate time as early as 12,000, and possibly even 30,000 BP.[9] Lunar calendars were among the first to appear, with all years having twelve lunar months (approximately 354 days). Without intercalation to add days or months to some years, seasons quickly drift in a calendar based solely on twelve lunar months. Lunisolar calendars have a thirteenth month added to some years to make up for the difference between a full year (now known to be about 365.24 days) and a year of just twelve lunar months. The numbers twelve and thirteen came to feature prominently in many cultures, at least partly due to this relationship of months to years.

The reforms of Julius Caesar in 45 BC put the Roman world on a solar calendar. This Julian calendar was faulty in that its intercalation still allowed the astronomical solstices andequinoxes to advance against it by about 11 minutes per year. Pope Gregory XIII introduced a correction in 1582; the Gregorian calendar was only slowly adopted by different nations over a period of centuries, but is today by far the one in most common use around the world.

[edit]History of time measurement devices

Horizontal sundial in Taganrog(1833)

A large variety of devices have been invented to measure time. The study of these devices is called horology.

An Egyptian device dating to c.1500 BC, similar in shape to a bent T-square, measured the passage of time from the shadow cast by its crossbar on a non-linear rule. The T was oriented eastward in the mornings. At noon, the device was turned around so that it could cast its shadow in the evening direction.[10]

A sundial uses a gnomon to cast a shadow on a set of markings which were calibrated to the hour. The position of the shadow marked the hour inlocal time.

The most precise timekeeping devices of the ancient world were the water clock or clepsydra, one of which was found in the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I (1525–1504 BC). They could be used to measure the hours even at night, but required manual upkeep to replenish the flow of water. The Greeks and Chaldeansregularly maintained timekeeping records as an essential part of their astronomical observations. Arab inventors and engineers in particular made improvements on the use of water clocks up to the Middle Ages.[11] In the 11th century, the Chinese inventors and engineers invented the first mechanical clocks to be driven by an escapement mechanism.

A contemporary quartz watch

The hourglass uses the flow of sand to measure the flow of time. They were used in navigation. Ferdinand Magellan used 18 glasses on each ship for his circumnavigation of the globe (1522).[12] Incense sticks and candles were, and are, commonly used to measure time in temples and churches across the globe. Waterclocks, and later, mechanical clocks, were used to mark the events of the abbeys and monasteries of the Middle Ages.Richard of Wallingford (1292–1336), abbot of St. Alban's abbey, famously built a mechanical clock as an astronomical orrery about 1330.[13][14]Great advances in accurate time-keeping were made by Galileo Galilei and especially Christiaan Huygens with the invention of pendulum driven clocks.

The English word clock probably comes from the Middle Dutch word "klocke" which is in turn derived from the mediaeval Latin word "clocca", which is ultimately derived from Celtic, and is cognate with French, Latin, and German words that mean bell. The passage of the hours at sea were marked by bells, and denoted the time (see ship's bells). The hours were marked by bells in the abbeys as well as at sea.

A chip-scale atomic clock

Clocks can range from watches, to more exotic varieties such as the Clock of the Long Now. They can be driven by a variety of means, including gravity, springs, and various forms of electrical power, and regulated by a variety of means such as a pendulum.

A chronometer is a portable timekeeper that meets certain precision standards. Initially, the term was used to refer to the marine chronometer, a timepiece used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation, a precision firstly achieved by John Harrison. More recently, the term has also been applied to the chronometer watch, a wristwatch that meets precision standards set by the Swiss agency COSC.

The most accurate timekeeping devices are atomic clocks, which are accurate to seconds in many millions of years,[15] and are used to calibrate other clocks and timekeeping instruments. Atomic clocks use the spin property of atoms as their basis, and since 1967, the International System of Measurements bases its unit of time, the second, on the properties of caesium atoms. SI defines the second as 9,192,631,770 cycles of that radiation which corresponds to the transition between two electron spin energy levels of the ground state of the 133Cs atom.

Today, the Global Positioning System in coordination with the Network Time Protocol can be used to synchronize timekeeping systems across the globe.

In medieval philosophical writings, the atom was a unit of time referred to as the smallest possible division of time. The earliest known occurrence in English is in Byrhtferth's Enchiridion(a science text) of 1010–1012,[16] where it was defined as 1/564 of a momentum (1½ minutes),[17] and thus equal to 15/94 of a second. It was used in the computus, the process of calculating the date of Easter.

As of 2006, the smallest unit of time that has been directly measured is on the attosecond (10−18 s) time scale, or around 1026 Planck times.[18][19][20]

[edit]Definitions and standards

Common units of time
UnitSizeNotes
attosecond1/1018 ssmallest measured time
femtosecond1/1015 s
picosecond1/1012 s
nanosecond1/109 s
microsecond1/106 s
millisecond0.001 s
secondSI base unit
minute60 s
hour60 minutes
day24 hours
week7 daysAlso called sennight
fortnight14 days2 weeks
lunar month27.2–29.5 daysVarious definitions of lunar month exist.
month28–31 days
quarter3 months
year12 months
common year365 days52 weeks + 1 day
leap year366 days52 weeks + 2 days
tropical year365.24219 daysaverage
Gregorian year365.2425 daysaverage
Olympiad4 year cycle
lustrum5 yearsAlso called pentad
decade10 years
Indiction15 year cycle
generation17–25 yearsapproximate
jubilee (Biblical)50 years
century100 years
millennium1,000 years

The SI base unit for time is the SI second. From the second, larger units such as the minute, hour and day are defined, though they are "non-SI" units because they do not use the decimal system, and also because of the occasional need for a leap second. They are, however, officially accepted for use with the International System. There are no fixed ratios between seconds and months or years as months and years have significant variations in length.[21]

The official SI definition of the second is as follows:[21][22]

The second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom.


At its 1997 meeting, the CIPM affirmed that this definition refers to a caesium atom in its ground state at a temperature of 0 K.[21] Previous to 1967, the second was defined as:

the fraction 1/31,556,925.9747 of the tropical year for 1900 January 0 at 12 hours ephemeris time.


The current definition of the second, coupled with the current definition of the metre, is based on the special theory of relativity, which affirms our space-time to be a Minkowski space.

[edit]World time

Time keeping is so critical to the functioning of modern societies that it is coordinated at an international level. The basis for scientific time is a continuous count of seconds based on atomic clocks around the world, known as the International Atomic Time (TAI). Other scientific time standards include Terrestrial Time and Barycentric Dynamical Time.

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the basis for modern civil time. Since January 1, 1972, it has been defined to follow TAI with an exact offset of an integer number of seconds, changing only when a leap second is added to keep clock time synchronized with the rotation of the Earth. In TAI and UTC systems, the duration of a second is constant, as it is defined by the unchanging transition period of the cesium atom.

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is an older standard, adopted starting with British railroads in 1847. Using telescopes instead of atomic clocks, GMT was calibrated to the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in the UK.Universal Time (UT) is the modern term for the international telescope-based system, adopted to replace "Greenwich Mean Time" in 1928 by the International Astronomical Union. Observations at the Greenwich Observatory itself ceased in 1954, though the location is still used as the basis for the coordinate system. Because the rotational period of Earth is not perfectly constant, the duration of a second would vary if calibrated to a telescope-based standard like GMT or UT - in which a second was defined as a fraction of a day or year. The terms "GMT" and "Greenwich Mean Time" are sometimes used informally to refer to UT or UTC.

The Global Positioning System also broadcasts a very precise time signal worldwide, along with instructions for converting GPS time to UTC.

Earth is split up into a number of time zones. Most time zones are exactly one hour apart, and by convention compute their local time as an offset from UTC or GMT. In many locations these offsets vary twice yearly due to daylight saving time transitions.

[edit]Sidereal time

Sidereal time is the measurement of time relative to a distant star (instead of solar time that is relative to the sun). It is used in astronomy to predict when a star will be overhead. Due to the rotation of the earth around the sun a sidereal day is 1/366th of a day (4 minutes) less than a solar day.

[edit]Chronology

Another form of time measurement consists of studying the past. Events in the past can be ordered in a sequence (creating a chronology), and can be put into chronological groups (periodization). One of the most important systems of periodization is geologic time, which is a system of periodizing the events that shaped the Earth and its life. Chronology, periodization, and interpretation of the past are together known as the study of history.

[edit]Religion

In the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes, traditionally ascribed to Solomon (970–928 BC), time (as the Hebrew word עדן, זמן `iddan(time) zĕman(season) is often translated) was traditionally regarded as a medium for the passage of predestined events. (Another word, זמן zman, was current as meaning time fit for an event, and is used as the modern Hebrewequivalent to the English word "time".)

There is an appointed time (zman) for everything. And there is a time (’êth) for every event under heaven–
A time (’êth) to give birth, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to tear down, and a time to build up.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search, and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep, and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart, and a time to sew together; A time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate; A time for war, and a time for peace. – Ecclesiastes 3:1–8

[edit]Linear and cyclical time

In general, the Judaeo-Christian concept, based on the Bible, is that time is linear, with a beginning, the act of creation by God. The Christian view assumes also an end, the eschaton, expected to happen when Jesus returns to earth in the Second Coming to judge the living and the dead. This will be the consummation of the world and time. St Augustine's City of God was the first developed application of this concept to world history. The Christian view is that God is uncreated and eternal so that He and the supernatural world are outside time and exist in eternity.

Ancient cultures such as Incan, Mayan, Hopi, and other Native American Tribes, plus the Babylonian, Ancient Greek, Hindu, Buddhist, Jainist, and others have a concept of a wheel of time, that regards time as cyclical and quantic consisting of repeating ages that happen to every being of the Universe between birth and extinction.

[edit]Numeric and Divine time

The Greek language denotes two distinct principles, Chronos and Kairos. The former refers to numeric, or chronological, time. The latter, literally "the right or opportune moment," relates specifically to metaphysical or Divine time. In theology, Kairos is qualitative, as opposed to quantitative.

[edit]Philosophy

The Vedas, the earliest texts on Indian philosophy and Hindu philosophy dating back to the late 2nd millennium BC, describe ancient Hindu cosmology, in which the universe goes through repeated cycles of creation, destruction and rebirth, with each cycle lasting 4,320,000 years. Ancient Greek philosophers, including Parmenides and Heraclitus, wrote essays on the nature of time.[23]

In Book 11 of St. Augustine's Confessions, he ruminates on the nature of time, asking, "What then is time? If no one asks me, I know: if I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not." He settles on time being defined more by what it is not than what it is,[24] an approach similar to that taken in other negative definitions.

In contrast to ancient Greek philosophers who believed that the universe had an infinite past with no beginning, medieval philosophers and theologians developed the concept of the universe having a finite past with a beginning. This view is not shared by Abrahamic faiths as they believe time started by creation, therefore the only thing being infinite is God and everything else, including time, is finite.

Newton's belief in absolute space, and a precursor to Kantian time, Leibniz believed that time and space are relational.[25] The differences between Leibniz's and Newton's interpretations came to a head in the famous Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence.

Immanuel Kant, in the Critique of Pure Reason, described time as an a priori intuition that allows us (together with the other a priori intuition, space) to comprehend sense experience.[26] With Kant, neither space nor time are conceived as substances, but rather both are elements of a systematic mental framework that necessarily structures the experiences of any rational agent, or observing subject. Kant thought of time as a fundamental part of an abstract conceptual framework, together with space and number, within which we sequence events, quantify their duration, and compare the motions of objects. In this view, time does not refer to any kind of entity that "flows," that objects "move through," or that is a "container" for events. Spatial measurements are used to quantify the extent of and distances between objects, and temporal measurements are used to quantify the durations of and between events. (See Ontology).

Henri Bergson believed that time was neither a real homogeneous medium nor a mental construct, but possesses what he referred to as Duration. Duration, in Bergson's view, was creativity and memory as an essential component of reality.[27]

[edit]Time as "unreal"

In 5th century BC Greece, Antiphon the Sophist, in a fragment preserved from his chief work On Truth held that: "Time is not a reality (hypostasis), but a concept (noêma) or a measure (metron)." Parmenides went further, maintaining that time, motion, and change were illusions, leading to the paradoxes of his follower Zeno.[28] Time as illusion is also a common theme in Buddhist thought,[29] and some modern philosophers have carried on with this theme. J. M. E. McTaggart's 1908 The Unreality of Time, for example, argues that time is unreal (see also The flow of time).

However, these arguments often center around what it means for something to be "real". Modern physicists generally consider time to be as "real" as space, though others such as Julian Barbour in his book The End of Time, argue that quantum equations of the universe take their true form when expressed in the timeless configuration spacerealm containing every possible "Now" or momentary configuration of the universe, which he terms 'platonia'.[30] (See also: Eternalism (philosophy of time).)

[edit]Physical definition

From the age of Newton up until Einstein's profound reinterpretation of the physical concepts associated with time and space, time was considered to be "absolute" and to flow "equably" (to use the words of Newton) for all observers.[31] The science of classical mechanics is based on this Newtonian idea of time.

Einstein, in his special theory of relativity,[32] postulated the constancy and finiteness of the speed of light for all observers. He showed that this postulate, together with a reasonable definition for what it means for two events to be simultaneous, requires that distances appear compressed and time intervals appear lengthened for events associated with objects in motion relative to an inertial observer.

Einstein showed that if time and space is measured using electromagnetic phenomena (like light bouncing between mirrors) then due to the constancy of the speed of light, time and space become mathematically entangled together in a certain way (called Minkowski space) which in turn results in Lorentz transformation and in entanglement of all other important derivative physical quantities (like energy, momentum, mass, force, etc) in a certain 4-vectorial way (see special relativity for more details).

Classical mechanics
History of ...
[hide]Fundamental concepts
Space · Time · Mass · Force
Energy · Momentum

[edit]Classical mechanics

In classical mechanics, Newton's concept of "relative, apparent, and common time" can be used in the formulation of a prescription for the synchronization of clocks. Events seen by two different observers in motion relative to each other produce a mathematical concept of time that works pretty well for describing the everyday phenomena of most people's experience.

[edit]Modern physics

In the late nineteenth century, physicists encountered problems with the classical understanding of time, in connection with the behavior of electricity and magnetism. Einstein resolved these problems by invoking a method of synchronizing clocks using the constant, finite speed of light as the maximum signal velocity. This led directly to the result that observers in motion relative to one another will measure different elapsed times for the same event.

Two-dimensional space depicted in three-dimensional spacetime. The past and future light cones are absolute, the "present" is a relative concept different for observers in relative motion.

[edit]Spacetime

Time has historically been closely related with space, the two together comprising spacetime in Einstein's special relativity and general relativity. According to these theories, the concept of time depends on the spatial reference frame of the observer, and the human perception as well as the measurement by instruments such as clocks are different for observers in relative motion. The past is the set of events that can send light signals to the observer, the future is the set of events to which the observer can send light signals.

[edit]Time dilation

Relativity of simultaneity: Event B is simultaneous with A in the green reference frame, but it occurred before in the blue frame, and will occur later in the red frame.

"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once". This quote, attributed variously to Einstein, John Archibald Wheeler, and Woody Allen, says that time is what separates cause and effect. Einstein showed that people travelling at different speeds, while agreeing on cause and effect, will measure different time separations between events and can even observe different chronological orderings between non-causally related events. Though these effects are typically minute in the human experience, the effect becomes much more pronounced for objects moving at speeds approaching the speed of light. Many subatomic particles exist for only a fixed fraction of a second in a lab relatively at rest, but some that travel close to the speed of light can be measured to travel further and survive much longer than expected (a muon is one example). According to the special theory of relativity, in the high-speed particle'sframe of reference, it exists, on the average, for a standard amount of time known as its mean lifetime, and the distance it travels in that time is zero, because its velocity is zero. Relative to a frame of reference at rest, time seems to "slow down" for the particle. Relative to the high-speed particle, distances seem to shorten. Even in Newtonian terms time may be considered the fourth dimension of motion; but Einstein showed how both temporal and spatial dimensions can be altered (or "warped") by high-speed motion.

Einstein (The Meaning of Relativity): "Two events taking place at the points A and B of a system K are simultaneous if they appear at the same instant when observed from the middle point, M, of the interval AB. Time is then defined as the ensemble of the indications of similar clocks, at rest relatively to K, which register the same simultaneously."

Einstein wrote in his book, Relativity, that simultaneity is also relative, i.e., two events that appear simultaneous to an observer in a particular inertial reference frame need not be judged as simultaneous by a second observer in a different inertial frame of reference.

[edit]Relativistic time versus Newtonian time

Views of spacetime along the world lineof a rapidly accelerating observer in a relativistic universe. The events ("dots") that pass the two diagonal lines in the bottom half of the image (the past light cone of the observer in the origin) are the events visible to the observer.

The animations visualise the different treatments of time in the Newtonian and the relativistic descriptions. At heart of these differences are theGalilean and Lorentz transformations applicable in the Newtonian and relativistic theories, respectively.

In the figures, the vertical direction indicates time. The horizontal direction indicates distance (only one spatial dimension is taken into account), and the thick dashed curve is the spacetime trajectory ("world line") of the observer. The small dots indicate specific (past and future) events in spacetime.

The slope of the world line (deviation from being vertical) gives the relative velocity to the observer. Note how in both pictures the view of spacetime changes when the observer accelerates.

In the Newtonian description these changes are such that time is absolute: the movements of the observer do not influence whether an event occurs in the 'now' (i.e. whether an event passes the horizontal line through the observer).

However, in the relativistic description the observability of events is absolute: the movements of the observer do not influence whether an event passes the "light cone" of the observer. Notice that with the change from a Newtonian to a relativistic description, the concept of absolute time is no longer applicable: events move up-and-down in the figure depending on the acceleration of the observer.

[edit]Arrow of time

Time appears to have a direction – the past lies behind, fixed and incommutable, while the future lies ahead and is not necessarily fixed. Yet the majority of the laws of physics don't provide this arrow of time. The exceptions include the Second law of thermodynamics, which states thatentropy must increase over time (see Entropy); the cosmological arrow of time, which points away from the Big Bang, and the radiative arrow of time, caused by light only traveling forwards in time. In particle physics, there is also the weak arrow of time, from CPT symmetry, and alsomeasurement in quantum mechanics (see Measurement in quantum mechanics).

[edit]Quantised time

Time quantization is a hypothetical concept. In the modern established physical theories (the Standard Model of Particles and Interactions and General Relativity) time is not quantized.

Planck time (~ 5.4 × 10−44 seconds) is the unit of time in the system of natural units known as Planck units. Current established physical theories are believed to fail at this time scale, and many physicists expect that the Planck time might be the smallest unit of time that could ever be measured, even in principle. Tentative physical theories that describe this time scale exist; see for instance loop quantum gravity.

[edit]Time and the Big Bang

Stephen Hawking in particular has addressed a connection between time and the Big Bang. In A Brief History of Time and elsewhere, Hawking says that even if time did not begin with the Big Bang and there were another time frame before the Big Bang, no information from events then would be accessible to us, and nothing that happened then would have any effect upon the present time-frame.[33] Upon occasion, Hawking has stated that time actually began with the Big Bang, and that questions about what happened before the Big Bang aremeaningless.[34][35][36] This less-nuanced, but commonly repeated formulation has received criticisms from philosophers such as Aristotelian philosopher Mortimer J. Adler.[37][38]

Scientists have come to some agreement on descriptions of events that happened 10−35 seconds after the Big Bang, but generally agree that descriptions about what happened before one Planck time (5 × 10−44 seconds) after the Big Bang will likely remain pure speculation.

[edit]Speculative physics beyond the Big Bang

A graphical representation of the expansion of the universe with the inflationary epoch represented as the dramatic expansion of the metric seen on the left. Image from WMAP press release, 2006.

While the Big Bang model is well established in cosmology, it is likely to be refined in the future. Little is known about the earliest moments of the universe's history. The Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems require the existence of a singularity at the beginning of cosmic time. However, these theorems assume that general relativity is correct, but general relativity must break down before the universe reaches the Planck temperature, and a correct treatment of quantum gravity may avoid the singularity.[39]

There may also be parts of the universe well beyond what can be observed in principle. If inflation occurred this is likely, for exponential expansion would push large regions of space beyond our observable horizon.

Some proposals, each of which entails untested hypotheses, are:

in which inflation is due to the movement of branes in string theory; the pre-big bang model; the ekpyrotic model, in which the Big Bang is the result of a collision between branes; and the cyclic model, a variant of the ekpyrotic model in which collisions occur periodically.[42][43][44]

  • chaotic inflation, in which inflation events start here and there in a random quantum-gravity foam, each leading to a bubble universe expanding from its own big bang.[45]

Proposals in the last two categories see the Big Bang as an event in a much larger and older universe, or multiverse, and not the literal beginning.

[edit]Time travel

Time travel is the concept of moving backwards and/or forwards to different points in time, in a manner analogous to moving through space and different from the normal "flow" of time to an earthbound observer. Although time travel has been a plot device in fiction since the 19th century, and one-way travel into the future is arguably possible given the phenomenon oftime dilation in the theory of relativity, it is currently unknown whether the laws of physics would allow time travel to the past. Any technological device, whether fictional or hypothetical, that is used to achieve time travel is known as a time machine.

A central problem with time travel to the past is the violation of causality; should an effect precede its cause, it would give rise to the possibility of temporal paradox. Some interpretations of time travel resolve this by accepting the possibility of travel between parallel realities or universes.

Theory would point toward there having to be a physical dimension in which one could travel to, where the present (i.e. the point that which you are leaving) would be present at a point fixed in either the past or future. Seeing as this theory would be dependent upon the theory of a multiverse, it is uncertain how or if it would be possible to just prove the possibility of time travel.

[edit]Judgement of time

The specious present refers to the time duration wherein one's perceptions are considered to be in the present. The experienced present is said to be ‘specious’ in that, unlike the objective present, it is an interval and not a durationless instant. The term specious present was first introduced by the psychologist E.R. Clay, and later developed by William James.[46]

[edit]Biopsychology

The brain's judgement of time is known to be a highly distributed system, including at least the cerebral cortex, cerebellum and basal ganglia as its components. One particular component, the suprachiasmatic nuclei, is responsible for the circadian (or daily) rhythm, while other cell clusters appear to be capable of shorter-range (ultradian) timekeeping.

Psychoactive drugs can impair the judgement of time. Stimulants can lead both humans and rats to overestimate time intervals. [47][48] while depressants can have the opposite effect.[49] The level of activity in the brain of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and adrenaline may be the reason for this.[50]

Mental chronometry is the use of response time in perceptual-motor tasks to infer the content, duration, and temporal sequencing of cognitive operations. Experiments have shown rats successfully estimating intervals of time.[51]

[edit]Alterations

In addition to psychoactive drugs, judgements of time can be altered by temporal illusions (like the kappa effect[52] ), age,[53] hypnosis,[54] and travel at the speed of light. The sense of time is impaired in some people with neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease and attention deficit disorder.

It is a known phenomenon that long periods of time appear to pass faster as people grow older. Stephen Hawking, also suggests that the judgement of time is a function of age, according to a ratio- Unit of Time : Time Lived.[citation needed] For example, one day to a six-year-old person would be approximately 1/2,192 of his life, while one day to a 27-year-old would be approximately 1/10,000 of his life. Therefore a day appears much longer to a young child than to an adult, even though the measure of time is the same.

[edit]Use of time

In sociology and anthropology, time discipline is the general name given to social and economic rules, conventions, customs, and expectations governing the measurement of time, the social currency and awareness of time measurements, and people's expectations concerning the observance of these customs by others.

The use of time is an important issue in understanding human behaviour, education, and travel behaviour. Time use research is a developing field of study. The question concerns how time is allocated across a number of activities (such as time spent at home, at work, shopping, etc.). Time use changes with technology, as the television or the Internet created new opportunities to use time in different ways. However, some aspects of time use are relatively stable over long periods of time, such as the amount of time spent traveling to work, which despite major changes in transport, has been observed to be about 20–30 minutes one-way for a large number of cities over a long period of time. This has led to the disputed time budget hypothesis.

Time management is the organization of tasks or events by first estimating how much time a task will take to be completed, when it must be completed, and then adjusting events that would interfere with its completion so that completion is reached in the appropriate amount of time. Calendars and day planners are common examples of time management tools.

Arlie Russell Hochschild and Norbert Elias have written on the use of time from a sociological perspective.