a baby can be born right now at 12:00, on a wednesday, august 24 in new jersey while another baby is also born in the exact same moment but they are born 9:00, on a tuesday, august 23 in california, these babies that are born at the same moment are technically because of time zones, a concept that we created ourselves, born “hours” apart even though really they are born at the same moment just not the same “time”, one will be considered older even though in actuality they are the same
Wtf
Ah, but it gets even weirder than that. Because time is dilated by gravity, and the earth’s gravity gets stronger the closer you are to its core, and California is ~800m higher than New Jersey, time moves at a slightly different rate in California than it does in New Jersey.
So even if you adjust for the time zones, two babies born at the same exact second aren’t actually being born at precisely the same time. And if the “older” child spends more time higher up than the other one during their life, they can make that time back and become the “younger” one.
Relatavistically speaking, simultaneity is a myth.
Time 👏 is 👏 not 👏 real 👏
Actually, time is very real: LET’S GET EVEN WEIRDER!
Imagine time divided into slices, like each moment in time is a numbered sheet of paper in a big stack. The whole universe is there on each sheet, the only difference is which instant of time each page is depicting.
Now, flick through them like a flipbook. It looks like everything’s moving and time is progressing! Or, you could flick through them the other way, and time’s running backwards. But if you just stand back and look at the sheets in the stack, they’re unmoving and static. Everything is there, all at once - the moon landing or the dinosaurs or Lincoln being shot are just as real and tangible as the land is when we sail over the horizon. Both examples are just out there, in a certain direction from us in time and space.
So, the idea of “past” and “future” is objectively a myth, right? A human thing for us to make sense of it?
Well, as it turns out, NOPE! Now this is where physics gets REALLY MESSED UP.
Let’s say I look at the paper sheets showing a vase getting smashed. The pieces take the same number of pages to go from a solid vase to shattered bits, as the number of pages they take to go from bits to vase if I flick the pages backwards. Makes sense. That’s how everything should work, right? Of course.
But it isn’t. There’s a certain vase/particle that takes more pages to be smashed than it does to go back together. The same thing is faster in one direction than the other. We call that direction the future.
Oh, cool! So the passage of time makes sense, then. HA HA NAH, HERE’S THE WEIRDEST BIT.
The past and future simply provide two directions, like telling someone to walk north or walk south. Just because there are directions doesn’t mean there has to be movement. So why do we have the sensation that time “flows” at all?
The answer:
Dunno. Nobody knows. “Dunno” is the default position for all of science, and why we see time as moving along its ‘past - future’ axis is one of the greatest mysteries in modern science.
Enjoy your day, and your possible existential dread!
