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Me and my elder brother were just talking about some stuff then he asked me a question: Was time invented or discovered and how we define time?

So I googled and it says this:

The measurement of time began with the invention of sundials in ancient Egypt some time prior to 1500 B.C. However, the time the Egyptians measured was not the same as the time today's clocks measure. For the Egyptians, and indeed for a further three millennia, the basic unit of time was the period of daylight

but how you actually define time(I already read that weird definition of time related to caesium) like If I say what is gravity?

it is simply the force with which any physical object that is attracted towards other object is Gravity

My question is that is time physical or hypothetical concept?

I know it's pretty dumb question to ask(after all I'm a 16y/o if that makes sense)

Thank you :)

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  • $\begingroup$ Possible duplicates: physics.stackexchange.com/q/235511/2451 and links therein. $\endgroup$
    – Qmechanic ♦
    Commented Mar 2, 2023 at 18:09
  • $\begingroup$ I would say, slightly tongue in cheek, that both: first it was invented, then it was discovered (chiefly by Einstein) that the invention doesn't quite match up to observations :) $\endgroup$
    – Amit
    Commented Mar 2, 2023 at 18:25
  • $\begingroup$ Time is a measure of change. $$\,$$ That's it. Time is a word invented for describing the flying birds, the withering flowers, and the setting Sun. That fact that properties, such as position or temperature or pressure, change. That is time. A clock is the name we use for anything that changes consistently, since we can use that as a frame to measure time against. Such as the Earth's spin, such as the mechanical arms of your wristwatch, and such as the radiation periods from groundstate transitioning of a caesium atom. $\endgroup$
    – Steeven
    Commented Mar 2, 2023 at 18:42
  • $\begingroup$ This question might be closed as a duplicate. But why has it been closed due to it not being about mainstream physics? This is a valid entry question about the philosophical nature of defining fundamental properties. I vote to reopen. $\endgroup$
    – Steeven
    Commented Mar 2, 2023 at 18:48
  • $\begingroup$ Is this a physics question or a history question. If the latter, try here: hsm.stackexchange.com $\endgroup$
    – hft
    Commented Mar 2, 2023 at 18:51

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I think this may be one for the philosophy stack exchange, (https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/). No two experts seem to agree on what time is; whether it’s merely our linear perception of events which actually all occur at once, or whether it is an integral part of the universe.

Assuming the former, then time was “invented”, but not in the way you think; the creation of the first sundial would merely be the invention of time measurement, and time was actually invented hundreds of millions of years ago, when organisms evolved complex brains that could record events as memory, but did so one at a time, and only recorded the events relevant to them, to prevent them being overwhelmed and going dumdumdumdumdum with their lips all day.

Assuming the latter, nobody invented time; it is just another dimension, and it was discovered or more accurately described in the correct way, by some physicist or other after doing the kind of equations that would make a mere mortal sit down and go dumdumdumdumdum with their lips all day.

But then, maybe neither of these answers are correct! What then? The point I am trying to get across here is that we just don’t know, because trying to define time in any meaningful way is simply not possible with today’s knowledge. You’re on your own.

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My question is that is time physical or hypothetical concept?

Time is a central part of all physics theories and it is something that we can build physical devices to experimentally measure. So it would be pretty difficult to not consider it to be a physical concept.

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You have probably heard of "spacetime" and that General Relativity describes that gravity is caused by the warping of spacetime. Nobel laureate Kip Thorn referred to Einstein's law of time warps. He said "things like to live where they age the most slowly. Gravity pulls them there. And so as an application, the Earth's mass warps time according to Einstein. It slows time near the surface of the earth. And this time warp is what produces gravity."

What Thorne is saying is that gravity is caused by (I would say that gravity "is") time dilation.

If this is correct, then without time there would be nothing but a lot of individual atoms floating around the universe. Nothing larger than an atom or a molecule would come together through gravity so we would not be here to discuss this issue. Thus time was not created, it was discovered.

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