Time As We Know It

I have always found it difficult to understand the truth about time. Does time differ in different places? Has the value of time changed according to our perspectives through the different ages? 

 

I have noticed that in the touristic city such as Marrakech in Morocco, people don’t need to use their watch. They start work at dawn and they finish at the set of sun. They are calm and more relaxed. When I was there I thought time was very slow. However, in the big cities, like Casablanca, people stress out more about time. People here work all day non-stop. They are nervous and run very fast. Their needs are bigger than their resources. Time seems to pass quickly.

 

When we were children or when having a fun time at a party with friends, we have a good time, we feel that time passes fast. Although, when we are experiencing difficult moments; sickness, sadness, pain or even passing an exam, we have a tough time …we feel as though time seems to stop. 

 

In addition, time for a researcher means everything to them; there’s never enough. Whereas a person who is always thinking about his past or taking a rest all day on the couch to kill time, has much more than he can handle. 

 

I really wished to know the truth of time, so I asked my best friend Ali, who is a geek in geological science and has a reputation as a first-rate leader in astronomy in our country, too. He has a wealth of knowledge.

He is the kindest person I have ever met. I’m eternally grateful for to know him. One thing we have in common is our love for learning new things in science. It’s awesome working on the cutting edge of science with him.

 

Mr. Ali is obviously very smart and fierce. We get along well with each other and enjoy spending time together on weekends as well. He is eager to talk about physics related subjects. It doesn’t take long for us to fall deeply into an amazing conversation.

 

 

 

“Does time differ through the different ages?” I asked Mr. Ali.

 

We have never really had a reference for the beginning of time. Our time has not had a beginning that we are aware of. All we know is that time began with the Big Bang, which occurred 13.7 billion years ago. We believe that Our God comes from before this event and nothing was there before Him; since He is the first of all events.

 

Do you ever remember yourself when you were a baby, never. After twenty years, we start to love our time more since we start to set goals in this life-- a degree, job, wife, children…

 

Though, we lose a third of our life through sleep, since we sleep almost eight hours a day

 

Overall, each person has time to sleep, a childhood, a place where he lives, a lifestyle, a job, different activities, therefore he has his own time. Needless to say, each person’s time and his age should be different to others, even if, they have the same birthday”. Ali said.

 

“Does time differ in different places on the Earth?” I said.

 

“Sure, our time is not absolute. From as far back as we can remember, we measure time with the day, the morning, the afternoon and the evening. Today, our measure of time is equated to the number of oscillations of a piece of natural stone like quartz, but the frequency of oscillations of the cesium atom is the highest in Earth. Cesium oscillates 9 billion times a second, so we have adapted it to measure each second worldwide. It is the most accurate measurement of time on Earth. This time tells us what time it is, but it doesn’t tell us the truth about time.

 

 

 “How about time on the different planets in our solar system,” I said.

 

“Time changes in different planets in our solar system. One year in Mercury is 87.969 Earth days, but One year in Pluto is more than two hundred Earth years.”

 

I have my first science-fictional idea to be alive as long as possible on this Earth by living one day here and one year on the furthest Planet in the solar system, Pluto. In this case, the rest of my life will last countless years and I will be very fortunate.

 

Accepting that I could travel to Pluto at the speed of light, which is 299 792.458 Km/s. My trip would take just four hours and I would stay there one year. We know that one year in Pluto lasts more than two hundred years in Earth. So, I will have lived for many generations on Earth. However, on my return to Earth, I would be too exhausted to explain to everyone who I am. I would be an oddity here. Maybe, I would expect to find a world with more intelligent people that would certainly be far ahead of me in advanced inventions and a much better way of living that I would absolutely not able to live with. Could we imagine a person who lived in 1800 coming forward to 2015? Could he use our cell phones, our technology, never? He would be so out of place and time. 

 

Anyway, I would find myself depressed and alone for the first time ever. Then I could not stand this turning point in my life. It would be hard for me to lose all my family, my friends at one time. I would feel sorry for myself. The crazy excitement at the beginning would surely change into the unpleasant feeling of sadness. I would be extremely disappointed, but the shock from this return would scare me so badly that I would never want to take a risk to travel to Pluto in the first place. 

 

Thinking about the outpouring of love from my mom, my dad, my family and my relationships with others makes me pretty emotional and feel ashamed of myself. Then I would break into tears. Because of this I’d rather live the rest of my life with my family, my friends than live many generations into trouble. The truth of time, in this case, is more relational and emotional than scientific or anything else.

 

“All right, if a star is about 600 000 km far from us, its light takes 2 seconds to get to Earth. No engine has been able to use this light speed, yet. It’s unbelievable, even for our future. 

 

We also know that more than 200 km from Earth the atmosphere disappears along with the freshness of the morning air. In space, everything lives in darkness. Even the solar system altogether revolves in the blackness. No birds fly in the sky, nor are there green places, or blue seas. So you could not live there one year with your weak body that was created to live only on this earth.”

 

My science-fictional idea, to live in different times and different places never comes true and remains a dream. Needless to say, it can be done only in the sci-fi movies. I had put myself into a hopeless situation, one that man could ever imagine, so I’d better keep my mind off this idea, as well and now I can’t help laughing at myself.

 

“How about time in another Galaxy,” I Said.

 

“Astronomers have found more than 200 000 Galaxies in our universe. In each Galaxy, there are many stars bigger than our sun, from which we will get their light, many light years from now. They have a life cycle like us. My God, who is alive in all time, birthed each star with hydrogen and helium gas.  When it’s alive we receive its light shining brightly in the night sky.

 

Before stars die, they are gathered together in a single structure. All their features protons, electrons are melted into a neutron. Then, when they lose their light, we can hear a pulsar sound, via a special apparatus, like someone knocking on a door. The sound becomes louder and louder before a colossal explosion, in which many of the pieces of the star are blown apart into space. With the special device, we can watch the passing of the star like a red rose in the sky. It’s the most magnificent thing I have ever seen.

 

All of sudden, a black hole appears at the center of the star and it with all its debris is swallowed up in order to wash our sky and protect our solar system. The black hole has a billion times more gravity than on earth per one cm squared. It’s so small and dense that nothing at all can escape from its surface - not even light. It’s an incredible deed.

 

  

In 2006, NASA launched a craft designed to travel to Pluto to take pictures. Nine years later we have just taken the first pictures of the furthest planet in our solar system. 

 

We will not able to know how many planets there are in other Galaxies because it would take many light years to get the nearest one. A light year equals light speed along an earth year.

 

Time in our universe is accumulated by using light speed. And each star lives exactly in the place that was traced out by Our God. Otherwise, His management of His entire universe would lose existence and time. The universe is like a carbon atom. It’s tightly unified. Our solar system is like an atom in this universe, all worked out for our best,” Ali said.

 

“You said that the stars could explode in space, how about the future of our star the sun?” I said.

 

“Since my God is the last one and there is no one after Him, when My God wills the sun like other stars to die, the volume of it will become bigger and bigger until the earth, the moon, mercury,….all the nine planets of our solar system will be enveloped by it. At that moment, the black hole produced by the sun will destroy all those planets of the solar system.

 

The universe will finish like it began. As though there had been no time and nothing.

 

Later Our God will create another earth not like this and another sky to reward the people who were spent their time well.

 

Know one truth. Our time is just a fraction of a second of the absolute time. All that is important is how we have used this gift of time given to us and whether we were on the right track. Truth is the measure of our time and of the deeds we leave behind on this earth.

 

Not missing this awesome moment to live gives us access to unlimited time. 

 

When we reach eternal life, it will be the end of time as we know it; time which we use today. In the hereafter, we will live in an absolute time which does not have even one second in the past or in the future. 

                               

©2015 Dakir Abderrahmane

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

I enjoyed the way you discussed and defined time.
"Know one truth. Our time is just a fraction of a second of the absolute time. All that is important is how we have used this gift of time given to us and whether we were on the right track. Truth is the measure of our time and of the deeds we leave behind on this earth."
I do believe our time is our most valuable item. Use it wisely.
Coyote

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for your comment.

[Coyote Poetry]

You are welcome my writer friend.

[Teny Johnson]

wow! brave article base on time. this exposed alot to me and i must confess its very helpful to knowledge tfs

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for your comment.

[Elle]

Wow! Great story, well done!

[UDENTA IFEANYICHUKWU GOODLUCK MALACHI]

Wow! what a great piece....
That's wonderful.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for your comment.

[Narayan Lama Aviral Yatree]

I cursorily read your article . It is nice . You have the writing fluency that a writer requires . What your story tries to expose is why time is mysterious . You have said from a right angle that it is difficult to understand time . I think Einstine's theory of relativity helps us to understand its fathomless value. In the same way your story also throws insightful light into the truth about time. When we are busy in something interesting , we feel that time is moving at the speed of a bullet but when we are in boredom , our feeling is that time has almost stopped to move . The reality is that time moves at the same speed everywhere but it never waits for anyone . So we must be able to grasp every opportunity that time brings for us . I would like to see your further progress in writing . Please move on to the next corner of life and create another good piece .

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for your comment.

[Sundar Momin]

I think we use "time" as a concept to measure present, past & future.

[Deborah G. Adams]

It is astonishing how I was thinking the other day about the idea of time, who decides what day it is, what time it is. Why today is called Monday or The beginning of the week? It is obvious how well organised is our clock but can we say the same about our time? Do we really need it to be organised? And if so, who decides what means organised in our life? The fact that we don't know when is our last second, made me only stop thinking and planning and just live that second, being sure that I put my own steps and breath into it. Thank you for what you wrote. Made me feel grateful once again by the thought that my clock is doing more than tic tac.

[Roughtrade Gibson]

Not my thing too many references to popular science.

[Brea]

This is beautiful! It transported me to a different time and place, which is what a good story and poem should do. Thank you.

[Warrior]

Great story telling. This did justice in the realm of getting the message across. Great message. There's lot of times where a story can have a great message to aim for, and have a lot of under lining things but then no one gets it, and if no one gets it, then the point has failed. But in my opinion this did well to get the message across. You made it clear, which is why I think it's good. Keep up the good work. What was also great was that I could imagine the story as I read it, and that is also a strong point of stories. The ability to have the reader imagine it because after all we're reading not watching it, but it was as if I was there as I read this, and that is great. Good job once again.

[Akshay Rawal]

I see here an attempt to encourage valuing of time with this piece of work in an introspective manner, embellishing it with facts, which is good. Time is a very intriguing concept. The form of the prose is closer to that of an essay. But the conclusion explains the purpose of writing this. Pen on

[Michelle Gent]

It definitely gives one a lot to contemplate. I like all your connections to time.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much. Your comment means a lot for me.

[Michelle Gent]

You are very welcome. I enjoyed it.

[Dana Busby]

The start of your story is great! Your ideas are presented in a logical, crisp way, which I found to be very engaging. The content got a little fuzzy when Ali came into the narrative. Some ideas that may help: providing a clear setting for the initial conversation. Shortening Ali's dialogue passages. The switching between the "science fiction idea" and the present become a little confusing also.

Overall-great start at discussing a complex concept, and you have a nice, philosophical story here!


One minor thing: I suggest that you review for punctuation and pronoun agreement.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for reading.

[Salvatore]

Wonderful! Great! You've just done something that a lot of people tried to do for centuries and centuries: you merged religion and science and you did it in the best way.
At first I wondered where would you get with the meaning of this story; during the reading everything slowly gets clear till the end when even the meaning of your writing is well explained.
Thanks for writing it. I will let my son read this story when he will be grown enough.
Thanks again.

Salvatore

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for reading.

[HipsterPrincess17]

I love the way you wrote this, it is very interesting. Good job and keep up the good work!

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for reading.

[HipsterPrincess17]

My pleasure!

[Caleb]

This puts time in a whole new perspective for me. Cool by the way I like your writing style.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you for reading.

[Caleb]

No problem and sorry it took so long I have been busy with school and I am trying to work on completing a story for a really good friend.

[Aventicus]

Hey look, I'm finally reviewing your story a week after you asked me too. Aren't I so punctual!
Now, putting the humor aside, your friend's "description" of time interested me, but I felt it was sort of lacking in the information it gave relating to your question. Mr. Ali gave *descriptions* of time, yet not a description of time itself. Really, he discussed how certain desires or ideas humans have about time that they want to put to action are impossible and also foolish. Then he discussed time in relation to his God, but still he had not given any sort of true description of time. And then he told us that we must make the best of the time we have. This wasn't exactly educational, but more of his lesson on living. It was a discussion of the topics time affects, not a discussion on time itself.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you for reading.