When Time Is It?

When time is it?

By Vern A. Westfall

I find it curious that we don’t have a proper interrogative to ask for the current time. We use Why to get an explanation of purpose, Where to get a location, How to get an explanation of process, Who to get the identity of a person, Why to get a reason for an action, When to get a time specified in the past or the future, and What to get an explanation for a process or an explanation of an object, but we don’t ask; “When time is it?”, instead we ask “What time is it?” It’s as if we were asking for an explanation rather than specific current moment, and maybe we are. Time is a curious thing, especially since Einstein pointed out that acceleration changes the rate at which things happen and motion can go faster or slower depending on where you are. Even gravity can slow things down, but time is only a rate of motion and it’s obvious that things don’t all move at the same rate. Some things move faster and some things move slower. The only motion limits we know are a temperature of absolute zero, where everything stops and the speed limit of light which nothing can exceed. So what happens to our concept of time at these extremes? Curiously time comes to a dead stop at both extremes and none of this makes any sense to a life form with a pace of awareness geared to the slow rotation of a small planet.

If we want to know what is happening on the surface of the sun we have to wait for the Earth to rotate 1/160^th of a full rotation for the news to reach us. The reason we have to wait is for the information to cover the 93 million miles between us and the sun. Light from the sun, and all other electromagnetic radiation, travels fast, but things in space are far apart and our only link to what’s happening out there is from light traveling at 670 million miles an hour. Even at this speed, when we look at distant galaxies we aren’t looking at what is happening now. Instead we are looking at what was happening millions or even billions of years ago. Current events aren’t possible in space. Real time surveillance isn’t possible for distant objects.  

The most accurate clocks yet invented are two atomic clocks located in Bolder Colorado. They run at a rate determined by vibrating ions. The pace of vibration running these clocks is also determined by their location in the earth’s gravitational field. As an experiment one clock was raised above the other which created a very slight difference in gravity and caused the higher clock to run measurably faster. More gravity, (G force), produces slower comparative movements. Acceleration, (G force) also produces slower comparative movements. If you want to outlive your grandchildren go on a long space voyage under constant acceleration, both on your way out and on your way back or, strap yourself into a centrifuge and endure a very long period of high G’s, or move to the crushing gravity of a large planet. You won’t notice any difference in your heart beat or aging process but they will be out of sync with those still living in a one G environment. To reverse the process and let your grand children catch up, move back to Earth and put them in a zero G environment for an extended period. You will need extremes to make any significant difference, but the effect is real and it wouldn’t make any sense for you to ask your grand children “What time is it?

        When or Where time is it?” would be more appropriate.