Is the concept of spacetime logical?

[VxDx]

What you say makes a lot of sense. Physics and math and all that are really just systems. The beauty of them is that they help to define what our environment is. To me, it's almost like the brain cannot accept some fact straight off. The brain wonders why it is true, but the why isn't really asking "why?" in the sense that the brain really wants to know, it's asking "why?" in the sense that it needs some idea of the inner workings, it wants to know how things work together, and the easiest and most logical way to express such complex ideas is with math. Math, in and of itself, is a system whereby one can define certain ideas. The beauty and draw of math, for me at least, is how it builds upon itself, not necessarily because it was designed to do so, but because as an ordered system it has to. For instance, on the surface, you can take what you learn in math and apply it. I'm not most people, but it's my belief that that is what most people do. Then there are the mathematicians, who look further behind to find out why, or who find out why to build up the ideas of mathematics. An example; Calculus was developed out of the fact that it has some very interesting uses and very simple definitions and processes. Most people look at calculus and can understand how to manipulate the numbers, but they don't understand why you manipulate the numbers in that way to get the derivative, or integral, or anything. In this case, it's the really brilliant minds that develop and understand these things.

Getting back on track... as far as the theory being "logical", I say no. It's so far off from any experience that people have that nobody should just blindly say "yeah, that sounds about right" when told about time dilation for the first time. It's almost as though, because no one really knows the "why" of time dilation, they just know the "what", it's harder for the mind to comprehend. I believe, however, that the intent of this post was to discuss whether or not time dilation was thought to actually occur, as in "though the idea cannot really be "seen" by people, does the theory make sense in a that-could-happen kind of way?". As far as this question goes, I do think that time dilation makes sense, and I do believe that this is truly what happens at those high speeds.

[makaveli121212]

exactly...its not only that were asking why, its why were asking why...i think there are certain ideals embedded in each individuals mind from the begining...and whether you want to believe time dilation or not you still cant hlep but get thoughts of it not being true because certain things were told to you over long periods of time

[JustJono]

I personally don't believe in "time". All that time is, is erosion, whatever. It's just the action of *happening*. If you poked a bottle of rat poison and it fell over, that isn't time: that's a bottle of rat poison falling over. I don't understand why there has to be a dimension, or a special name for something so .. so something you don't have to pay attention to. You don't need a whole 'timeline' or a big 'timeframe' to be living. To be living, all you have to do is be living.

I just realized now how hard it is to describe my thoughts on this in words. But hopefully you get my point.

[VxDx]

I see your point, but I think you are looking at it the wrong way. You are looking at the changes that the passing of time creates as being what people think time is. Time, however, is what is passing that creates those occurances. I think that you look at it like this because time is such an abstract idea on the most basic level that it's hard to comprehend, so the common idea of time relates to the effects of time, more specifically it's passing, so you just eliminate time and just take the occurances as happening. This, I don't think, is the correct way of looking at it. Something has to change for those things to happen, and that change is what we commonly call time.

I guess that was a pretty poor explanation of my thoughts, so nevermind it if you don't understand what I'm saying.

[makaveli121212]

time exists because we allow it to exist...and we need time to exist and be measurable so we can get to school and work and partys at the same time...without a constant, measurable amount of time things on earth wouldnt run very efficiently

[Omeganitros]

Its like this: The Rules Of Logic only apply to logic. If you use it on something else, it wont work. Its like using the rules of Chess to play Hungry Hungry Hippos. And as far as Im concerned, reality is not logic. So I dont think spacetime is either.

[makaveli121212]

agreed, its hard to apply logic to something that isnt logical

[jazzmosis]

agreed, its hard to apply logic to something that isnt logical

Example: Human idealogy.

[makaveli121212]

well for instance in calc i learned a few months ago a theorem called MVT...Mean Value Theorem...if you trying to find the are under the curve of a function, per se x^2 over the interval (2,6) you cannot simply use algebra because it is a curve...what the mean value theorem states is that if you find the average height of the graph within that interval and mutiply it by 6-2, the width, you would get the correct area...however, there are an infinite number of heights throughout the graph of x^2 where x is between 2 and 6...the theorem works all the time, but the idea of finding an average of an infinite amount of numbers isnt very logical...

this post was too long for the point i was trying to make...i couldnt think of anything better though...you get the point though

[AlbinoLime]

but to any human mind it should be illogical or your brain isnt functioning correctly

So....what you're saying is that if the equation makes sense to anybody their brain does not work properly? Maybe it's your brain that does not work.....

[makaveli121212]

nope, not at all...you need to learn to read...im talking about the concept, not the equation pal...it was certainly implied to say the least...

[Anonymous]

You can speed up nature but you cannot speed up time, and why would u want to ne ways wouldn't you rather know how to slow time down?

[VxDx]

You can speed up nature but you cannot speed up time

clearly you missed the point and don't know what you're talking about.

[Specforces]

Agreed.

[deposition]

lol guest evertone knows that we can slow down time, were just looking at it from a logical stand point.