Is time constant or does it expand and contract?

We hit the line of time at a tangent,

touching it only at the present point.

As time curves away before and after us,

we experience a doppler effect.

The closer you are to present,

the slower and more focused time will appear to you.

If we visualise the rate of passing of time as a rubber metre stick and call 1m. the local rate then yes time expands and contracts depending on how fast you're moving and if you're experiencing any gravity (compared to your starting situation).If you vary these conditions the metre stick could expand to a kilometer (High speed and/or high gravity) or contract to a centimetre (change to low speed and/or weak gravity).If you were in empty space and not moving time would be passing at a constant rate ie it would be constant but not as high as expected since the (universal) presence of gravity would lower it slightly.

Newton first questioned the nature of the flow of time. He wondered whether it was smooth and continuous or corpuscular in nature!

When Einstein published the ‘Special Theory of Relativity’ in 1905, it became clear that time flows more slowly (time dilation) for two observers separating with a constant high velocity, approaching that of the speed of light.

In 1915, Einstein published his ‘General Theory of Relativity’ with its underlying concept of the strong equivalence between an accelerating frame of reference and a gravitational acceleration. In this later theory, he showed that accelerating clocks run faster. Furthermore, he showed that stationary clocks in a strong gravitational field run more slowly. Thus, an observer close to the event horizon of a black hole would ‘think’ that his clock is running normally but a distance observer would see that the event horizon clock is running very slowly indeed.

Thus, time flow depends upon your velocity, acceleration, and gravitational location and so in a sense it does expand and contract depending upon what you are doing!

Time contracts or expands depending upon whether you are with an angry tiger or a pretty girl, etc. However time is greatly distorted for bodies falling into a black hole where you would almost never reach the bottom at the singularity (dead of course).

According to Einstein time is relative for different people at different speeds. If you travel at speeds approaching the speed of light (relative to the earth) time will pass more slowly for you. You won't actually notice anything until you return to your start point and find that more time has elapsed for the people you left behind. It's called time dilation and has been observed using the most accurate atomic clocks on space missions.

The three who answer that time does not exist are correct, but they give no explanation. I have written a five page article on the subject, if you, or anyone else would like to read it, I will attach to to my reply to your e mail. This forum does not permit space for me to present it here.

johnandeileen2000@yahoo.ca

Type "What is Time?" in the subject box of your e mail.

it doesnt expand andcontract as its not a physical object.

Unless you're talking anbout the length of time. It can be longer and shorter ie: years, months, days, hours, mis and secs are diffent lengthsd on different planets as the orbit the sun at different rates.

expands and contracts if you travel at speed of light>

Time expands when there is no work to do and contracts when there is work to do. Simply stated:

Time is inversely proportional to work.

Time is certainly not constant.

Time changes depending on your energy and velocity.

The closer you are to the speed of light, time slows down. If you travel at that speed, it would appear normal to you, but if you flew off at 99% speed of light, what was 10 minutes for your would be centuries for us. You would appear to us to be in slpw motion, and to you, we would be in fast forward mode!

This was all discovered by Einstein and has been proven with atomic clocks on supersonic airplanes.