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.

[Sheila Marie Carr]

Time as we know it...I love the concept of of the way you have defined throughout this piece your thoughts and views on time. The value you of time is measured by man. Great write and I enjoy the flow of it.
Thank you for the read

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for reading.

[Sheila Marie Carr]

You're welcome

[17thWhitePrince]

A very interesting piece on the concept of time and how time itself should be viewed and how it is viewed. I think one year on Mercury is less than one Earth year btw. Also, time is also defined by one's perspective of events that are encompassing the observer. Time is such an amazing topic with so many diverse angles to cover that it could really take a substantial amount of "time" to cover it all. You did quite well though.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for reading.

[Serenity Faith]

I absolutely loved this! Time told in every measure and thought it could be said and felt in. Time is taken for granted by most of us. And truly, time only matters when you make it to eternity. It's scary to think about sometimes, but our souls go on even when the timer on our bodies run out. We should definitely make the most of the little time we do have. Thank you for recommending this to me.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for reading.

[Philip Muls]

I like the way you show the relativity of time. Thinking of past and future is a waste but so difficult to stop.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much for reading.

[Outdated Account]

! Warning: Critical feedback incoming!

You DO NOT write a full story in bold. Big no no. It hurts (literally) MY eyes, and I thought I was use to this kind of thing. Looking a little longer, I can see that there is an even deeper bold, which tells me this is just the natural typeface, in which case LOWER YOUR TYPEFACE SIZE. A 3 on the WC processor is the same as 12pt in word.

Additionally, paragraph indentations are something you should research. It might be a problem for some people on this site, but you CAN indent with the site's word processor. All the same --I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND TYPING YOUR WRITING UP IN A SEPARATE WORD PROCESSOR BEFORE POSTING IT--.

Last thing before I actually get to the story proper: you don't need to put up a copyright for your short story. That's a pitiful ego error. Granted I don't know (as of writing this part) whether this is a good piece or not. When publishing in a space like this there is a built in copyright to the site (typically), and even if not, the proof is the writing itself. It's a superfluous addition that makes it feel like you're giving tremendous value to a few words on a page. The reader decides the value (sadly), not the writer.

I will say right now that I do not care a lick about perspectives on time and I'm only going to review this based on it's value as writing. Any theories postulated are theories that I don't want to bother with.

"The truth about time" is awkwardly worded. I would consider fixing this, despite the error being so mild, as this is the very beginning of your piece and sets the tone for everything to follow. That being said, most of your first paragraph is what many editors call "wonky", as some words negate from the flow of reading.

"... that in the touristic city such as..." Should be "... in a touristic city such as..."

"...at the set of sun." should be "... at the set of the sun."

"When we were children or when having a fun time..." This entire sentence is just off. There is at least one missing comma, the phrasing is wonky, and it runs flat into the next. This whole paragraph needs to be revised in a way that I can't tell you how to fix. There's a level of personal influence I can't really fault, however it does seem to be causing problems for you. No doubt this is due to a language barrier.

At this point I can clearly see that this is not a story. This is an essay. As such certain rules need to be adhered to. For example, when writing an essay you cannot use the word "we" when referring to the audience. In fact you really shouldn't refer to the audience.

An additional point to pin to the last: when introducing a source use their full professional title, friendship counts AGAINST you when using a source as it creates bias, do not introduce a source on a topic outside of their field. If this Ali is not a physicist, do not use him as a source for a physics based article. If he is a geological expert, he is pretty much only a good source for an article in the study of the earth, rocks, gemstones, oil, tectonic movement, etc.

"I'm eternally grateful for to have known him." Has a superfluous "for".

You have a double return before your first piece of dialogue. This is off putting for a reader. It creates a gap that does not need to be there in order to transition from narrative to conversation. Typically you do not use dialogue in an essay. Which makes me think that this is perhaps not meant as an essay, in which case it is... I have no idea.

While I will not fault your theorization, as it is not entirely pertinent to the value of this piece as a work of literature, I will fault your leaps in logic. Logic is a quality of literary value, and you seem to be making some conjunctive logical fallacies. "If then"s that are leaping over issues of perspective (which I find comedic as they are about perspective) in favor of reaching a conclusion, and then another proposition, rather than discussing them.


I hate to admit this but there came a point in my reading of this that I could no longer read. This is a poor, broken, jumble of writing. I'm willing to bet that English is not your first language and I will not fault you because of this. The issues in this writing however, most dramatically the formatting, but also grammar and errors in sentence structure, leave it for the most part irredeemable. If you were willing to re-write it with a solid "thesis" and stronger grasp of the fundamentals of the written English language it could be worth that copyright mark.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you for reading.

[Outdated Account]

I feel as though I may have come off as a bit harsh, while this is true, it is also intended to be constructive. Some things must be taken apart to be fixed. I have not insulted you, or at least I had no intention of doing so, what I have given you are the first steps to take to improve your writing skill should you wish to pursue this field more seriously.

[nocool]

Time, unlike money, can never be made back once it is spent.
You also have to spend it....

When you do... spend it wisely.
When time ends, and you fade away....
your last words should not be, "I wish I would have......"

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you for reading.

[Bear]

I have tried three times to write a review of your story and have to admit that because of my own thoughts on time which are very different from yours, I am struggling. For instance the big bang: to that I ask, how can you destroy dirt? If you burn it, you end up with various gases so you didn't destroy it you just change its composition. So how do you truly destroy dirt so there is no trace of it at all? Answer you can't, and if you can only change it into something else then the next question is how do you create it? See where I am going with this, if you can't destroy it or create it then it must have always been here! I am not saying there was no big bang I am only saying it was not the start of time. I believe the universe spins and expands as far as its magnetic arms will let it then retract and pulls everything back just to set up another big bang. And time is a concept of man, time begins when you are born and ends when you die, you may hear tales of other time but shall know no other than your own. So you see my dilemma, our concepts are so far apart there is no common ground, so I beg your forgiveness at my inability and will not bear me ill will at my shortcomings.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you for reading.

[Rainheart]

I have always found it difficult to understand the truth about time. Does time differ in different places?(we already know that this is true however what you are referring to is Einstein's theory of relativity, so instead of "differ" try using the word "feel" or phrases it as "does time feel different" or "does the feeling of time differ") Has the value of time changed according to our perspectives through the different ages?(you mean "throughout the ages" as each timeline along the annals of history are distinct stating that they are different becomes redundant)

I have noticed that in the touristic city such as(not such as but "of" if you want to use "such as" then rephrases as such: " in touristic cities etc.") Marrakech in Morocco, people don’t need to use their watch(watches). 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(there) work all day non-stop. They are nervous(needs more potency try "always nervous" or "they are nervous and always in a rush" "not run ver fast"

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you for reading.

[Rose Jaeger Kaneki]

this is an amazing story, i love it, keep up the amazing work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.

[Rose Jaeger Kaneki]

welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rajah de AzinPrinz Phyb..]

Interesting writing. I've always thought time an illusion created by a brain that can only see panoramic slices of the eternal Now. Anyways, good work.

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you so much.