A simple question..........

[denishc]

The earliest method of measuring time was with a sundial.

 Do sundials work at night?  And if so do they "keep" the same time?

[Woodlouse2002]

Sundials don't work at night.
Nor can you set them to summer time (daylight saving).

However, they do tell the correct time in every timezone with out needed to be changed.

(Actually, I suppose you could change them to daylight savings by rotating the base. But lets forget that.)

[Hagar]

You don't need to wind them up or buy new batteries either.

[quote]Hagar spoke of using "natural things" to measure by.

[denishc]

I just checked this with a tape measure. My "wing span" is 65 inches or 5' 5".

 If you measured the distance of your outstreached arms with your palms open, from the tip of the longest finger on one hand to the tip of the longest finger on the other hand, it should be very close to your height.

[Hagar]

If you measured the distance of your outstreached arms with your palms open, from the tip of the longest finger on one hand to the tip of the longest finger on the other hand, it should be very close to your height.

I was holding the tape between thumb & index finger of each hand, just as I would if I were measuring something like your electrical cable. I haven't measured my height for many years now but I was 6' 1" all my adult life. It's possible I've shrunk a bit with age.

PS. Don't ask me what that would be in metres as I have no idea & have no intention of finding out.

[eno]

TIME ...... Mans invention to cope with the infinity of time.. etc etc etc ad infinitum.  :o

[Hagar]

[quote]TIME ...... Mans invention to cope with the infinity of time.. etc etc etc ad infinitum.

[denishc]

This leads nicely to the next question. Man invented time for his own convenience. It is therefore an artificial concept that does not really exist in nature. If this is the case, how could time travel ever be possible?

 First of all, time exist becouse it passes.  Day becomes night just to become day again.  The seasons change, trees become green then brown and finally bare.  Once I was young, spry and felt invincible.  Now I'm gray, ache and am fearing my own mortality.......so don't tell me time doesn't exist!!

 Secondly, time travel is impossible.  If it was possible then why hasn't some future generation traveled back and set right the wrongs that have been done?  The First World War, the Second World War, the assassination of the Kennedys all could have all been avoided.  And these have just happen in recent history, there are countless other events that could have been altered but haven't.

[denishc]

......of course there is that line of thought that believes no matter what you do the outcome of an event cannot be  changed.  Things are just destine to happen so time travel, to alter events, would be futile.

[TacitBlue]

"Time travel" is not possible. however, the multiverse theory (anything that can happen does happen in an alternate dimension) would allow that one could travel to an alternate universe where it is 300 years ago, but with no differences other than that. of course one could also travel to a universe where crocodiles rule the earth, and humans are their house pets. Or bowling is a federal offense. Or just about anything you can think of. One could even kill ones own grandfather without it having an effect on ones life, because it will have happened in anouther universe, and not this one.

P.S. I should use "one" more often, that was fun.

[denishc]

....... of course one could also travel to a universe where crocodiles rule the earth, and humans are their house pets...... Or just about anything you can think of. One could even kill ones own grandfather without it having an effect on ones life, because it will have happened in anouther universe, and not this one.

 Would that be my crocodile grandfather?  The one with six digits on each hand........er, paw.........er, claw or what ever crocodiles have!

[Hagar]

Now I'm gray, ache and am fearing my own mortality.......so don't tell me time doesn't exist!!

I know the feeling. Wish I hadn't started this train of thought now.

The only method I know of time travel is by crossing the International Date Line. Now if that phenomenon doesn't prove that the whole concept of time is unnatural I don't know what does.

[eno]

I know the feeling. Wish I hadn't started this train of thought now.

The only method I know of time travel is by crossing the International Date Line. Now if that phenomenon doesn't prove that the whole concept of time is unnatural I don't know what does.

There was Concorde ...... untill it ran out of time  ;D

[Hagar]

[quote]There was Concorde ...... untill it ran out of time

[eno]

Maybe that was the problem with it ........ It just ran out of warp power  :-[

Seriously though TIME is really none existant.
Apart from the passage of  the sun, moon, the earths rotation and seasons we would have no concept of time.
Other planets have their own rotations and orbits if we had evolved on one of these planets our concept of time would have been completely different.

A 24 hour cycle only represents reaching approximately the same point in space in relation to the sun. So time in itself is a man made concept to relate to his enviroment.

cheers
eno