Texts about our space and time 
- PROEM
- INTRODUCTION
- THE ORIGIN OF SPACE AND TIME
- THE COSMIC CLOCK AND THE ATOMIC CLOCK
- THE TIME AND THE LAWS OF NATURE
- PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
- THE DIRECTION OF THE TIME
- DEFINITIONS FOR THE TIMES
- TABLE OF CONTENTS
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
Genesis 1:1-3.
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Hubble's Deepest-Ever View of the Universe Unveils Myriad Galaxies Back to the Beginning of Time
Link to the picture of the Universe Down Under
Introduction.
On this web page a short summary is given of the recent ideas about the creation of the universe and the origin of space and time. My personal vision is, that the creation of the universe and the laws of nature are from divine origin and that the human kind will never be able to understand the full act of the creation. With modern telescopes and other instruments we can see farther and farther in the unfathomable depth of the universe, whereby the idea slowly comes to us, that the boundaries yield to us farther and farther from the human horizon.Back to MENU
The origin of space and time.
Generally cosmologists assume that time begins with the creation of the universe. The time, the matter and the space originate out of nothing on the event zero on the clock of the cosmic time. Before that event there was no time, matter and space. From an unimaginable huge quantity of energy concentrated in a single point (exceptional state or singularity) originates our present universe. The energy expands to all directions and with this time and space come to existence. During the expansion of all this energy the transformation from energy to matter begins. The expanding of this energy and matter to all directions still is going on in our days. From the event zero until now the universe evolves and stars, systems of stars and clusters of systems originate. As long as the universe is expanding, she shall become more and more void, what concerns the density of systems of stars. Also there is the possibility that the expansion stops on a certain moment and changes to a contraction. The systems of stars could collapse to the original concentration of energy in the singularity and the process of creation can start again. This is shortly outlined the theory of the big bang universe.
Like biology, astronomy is a study of an history (evolution). Just as there are biologists who deny the theory of evolution of Darwin, there are cosmologists who deny the theory of the big bang. The big bang, whereby all matter comes to existence in a single moment, is exchanged for the eternal creation of matter out of nothing. Every now and then an atom originates here and there in the void space with a certain regularity. These atoms are needed to replenish the disappearing matter in the expanding universe and to give the universe an eternal character. The universe and also the time did exist for ever according to this vision. There is no evolution and the universe shows forever the same look. This is the theory of the steady state universe.
At the end there are the cosmologists looking for a compromise, who take something of both theories above mentioned and mix them. According to them the recent universe came to existence from a number of little bangs, who can happen also today, par example in the form of black holes. Our universe could be a black hole, if we could see it from the outside. Because we exist in this universe, this universe appears to us as a 'white hole'. We must see the black hole as a well, in which matter and energy (also light) disappear, because they are absorbed to the inside, and a 'white hole' as a fountain, in which matter and energy originate and expand to form an universe. The space and time have in each black or white hole (singularity) an own origin and there are more universes and times. This this the theory of the inflationary universe.Back to MENU
The cosmic clock and the atomic clock.
, belongs also inseparably to space and time.
In the previous section was told about the origin of time. We can see the evolution of our universe as a sequence of events, that take place in succession during the expansion of the universe. On the cosmic clock we read the expansion time. Actually this cosmic time is measured by rays of light, that are exchanged between two events. An event is an occurrence, that takes place on a certain moment of time and in a certain point in space. Time and space belong to each other, when it concerns measures of time. An event takes place at an object, let us assume an atom or a star, that can send out light or can receive light. In this sense matter, out of which our cosmos existsOur cosmos is filled which matter and energy. Matter can be converted into energy and vice versa, in accordance with the well known formula of Einstein E=mc². In this formula E is the quantity of energy, needed to create the quantity of matter m, while c² is the square of the speed c of light. Vice versa it is possible that this matter m transforms in the energy E during a particular occurrence. Matter and energy are in fact aspects of one and the same thing.
Radioactivity is a process whereby atoms decay and whereby matter is transformed into energy. The quantity of decaying of atoms of a certain element, e.g. uranium, can be measured and is dependent of the lapse of time. This gives an alternative possibility to measure time. We talk then of atomic time. In our sun energy is created during the fusion of nucleons of atoms, whereby matter is converted in energy. By means of measurement the production of energy of our sun, we can calculate the loss of matter of our sun. With the help of such measurements an estimation can be made of the lifetime of our sun or an arbitrary other star. These estimations also are based on the atomic time.
The lifetime of our universe can be measured in one manner with the help of the expansion of stellar systems on the cosmic scale of time and in the other manner with the help of radioactive decay of elements or losses of matter in stars on the atomic clock.
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The time and the laws of nature.
in the course of the time. The laws of nature apply always and everywhere, when and where as well during the whole existence of the universe.
In the previous section we talked about two clocks, the cosmic clock and the atomic clock. To run the clocks with the same rate, the scientists are obliged to make a fundamental postulation. This his the assumption, that the constants of nature, such as for example the constant c of the light in the formulas of Einstein and the constant of the gravitation in the formulas of Newton, do not change
Concerning the validity of the laws of nature, for the beginning of the universe (during and shortly after the big bang), there is going on nowadays a busy discussion. The most modern theories talk about the arising of the laws of nature on that moment and try to sketch a development of the appearing of the four known forces of nature. There forces originate then out of a single sort of fore-force in the unification theories. The last word about this is not been said yet.
Also there is the assumption, that the speed of light is the largest velocity, whereby in nature signals (energies) can be exchanged. If this was not the case, then in nature the law of cause and result could not apply anymore. That is to say that when an event is the result of an other event, this event takes place later than the other event. On this way we can make a distinction between past, present and future. This is then a division on the scale of the cosmic time.
On the scale of the atomic time the difference between past and future appears by exchanging the time t by minus t in the formulas of physics. Physically seen the time is reversible, because the atomic processes are reversible in time. We can choose the point of time now, the present, by setting the time equals zero in the formulas. Beside the invariance of the laws of nature for reversing in time, we know also the invariance for reversing in space (par example for the spin of a particle) and the reversing of charge (for a positive or negative charged particle). The time-invariance can appear alone, while the other invariance's appear in general in specific combinations (par example space and charge) or all three together (space, charge and time).Back to MENU
Past, present and future.
at the same place.
We use in this paragraph the classification of the time in past, present and future. In the theory of relativity an event A can be followed by an event B, seen by one observer, whereas another observer sees first B and afterwards A, caused by the finitude of the speed of light. However these events can not be connected to each other as cause and consequence. Thus it can happen also, that A and B for one observer occur simultaneously and not for the other observer, provided that A and B do not to occurThe term simultaneity is absolute for events at the same place. Every observer experiences this as simultaneously. Simultaneity of events at several places in the universe can be defined only if there exists a common origin in space and time. Only then can we give the terms 'before ' and 'after ' a significant meaning in a natural manner.
The big bang has an equal origin in space and time for each observer in the universe, by definition. Radiation, originating from an area at a distance of fifteen billion light years, seems to have its origin in the big bang and, what recently is discovered, comes evenly and from all directions of the remote space. The light of this background radiation of the universe is fifteen billion years old, because it needed that time to travel that distance. We estimate accordingly for the age of the expanding universe fifteen billion years, with all kinds of uncertainties in the measurings.
Seen from the point of view of an observer, signals (light rays) can be received from the past and signals can be emitted to the future. The order of reception and emission can be linked (by means of a physical process) as cause and consequence. On this basis the space-time can be classified into a past, present and future area.
Moreover we can designate in the space-time of Einstein areas, where events can not be linked as cause and consequence. This is a prohibited area for this observer, of which he however knows that it exists. Because the law of cause and consequence applies for each observer, is this area for absolutely none observer accessible.
However, when this would be accessible, then we should see there no distinction between the terms before and after, as well as no distinction between past, present and future. Travelling in the time to the past and traveling with a speed larger than light, what one sees happen in science-fiction films, takes place in this for each observer inaccessible area. Above mentioned classification in past, present and future applies to the relativistic time of Einstein.
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The direction of the time.
to the past. This anti particle disappears, when it meets its counter part, the ordinary particle. Their total mass together disappears in a quantity energy, according to E=mc².
The atomic processes are reversible in the time. For this reason here the terms cause and consequence are mutually interchangeable. An anti particle has the properties of the particle, of which it forms the counter part, by reversing the time in the physical formulas. The behavior of an anti particle (e.g. positron) is to predict exactly by supposing that it is the ordinary particle (e.g. electron), which walks back in the time. In other words as a particle, which appears from the future in the present and disappearsIn the realm of the elementary particles, such as protons, neutrons and electrons, exist future, present and past beside each other. Here the direction of the time is reversible and it is not possible to indicate, what the real direction is, where the time goes to. Because anti-matter in the universe is rare and always is destroyed in contact with ordinary matter, this should be an indication, what the direction for the real time is and what the real order is for past, present and future.
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Definitions for the times.
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Instead atomic time, where time is measured by means of atomic processes, we better could speak of nuclear time, if it concerns processes, which take place between the nucleons, such as protons, neutrons and electrons, the composing particles of the atoms. The unit of time, the second, is defined by means of the duration of the vibration of the light in a special spectral line of the element Cesium. We can speak here of real atomic time, because this special spectral line is an atomic phenomenon. The atomic clocks are being set on the right time with the help of that special spectral line and the mechanical clocks are being set with the help of that atomic clocks.
So we make in physics also a distinction between absolute time, measured by mechanical clocks, for which the laws of Newton apply, and relativistic time, measured by rays of light, which are exchanged between occurrences, for which the laws of Einstein apply.
The distinction between cosmic time and atomic or nuclear time, just as that is made in this contemplation about time, resides in the diverse laws of nature of the macrocosm and microcosm. The possibility or impossibility of unification of these laws in a consistent theory coincides with the problems of our time.
== 1 TEXTS ABOUT OUR SPACE-TIME
>> 2 THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM
>> 3 THE SPACE-TIME IN THE MACROCOSM
>> 4 THE SPACE-TIME IN THE MICROCOSM
>> 5 SPACE-TIME DIAGRAMS FOR PARTICLES AND PHOTONS
>> 6 TABLE FOR QUARKS AND HADRONS
>> 7 TABLE FOR QUARKS AND LEPTONS
>> 8 THE WINDOWS OF TIME FOR OUR SPACE
>> 9 TERMINOLOGY FOR COSMOLOGY
>> 10 MATHEMATICAL APPENDIX PART 1 | PART 2
>> 11 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTERS
>> 12 REFERENCES AND LITERATURE
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