Interaction Of Time And Space
It's been over 30 years since the publication of Fritjoff Capra's classic book, The Tao of Physics, relating modern physics to Eastern mysticism. Among the many interesting topics covered is our notion of time and space, a concept fundamental to our way of thinking and something that has undergone remarkable transformation.
There is no formula or equation in physics that does not somehow incorporate the notion of the interaction and dependence of time and space.
It is fundamental to the science. In classical physics, which is mainly Newton's set of theories on mechanics and motion, the equations describing position, velocity, and acceleration all include a parameter for time and for space.
S = v0t+1/2at2
The above equation is Newton's classic expression for distance (s), relating time (t), initial velocity (v0), and acceleration (a). Inherent in this mathematical expression and indeed inherent in all of classical physics is the prerequisite of absolute, constantly flowing time and a three-dimensional space. Velocity is a change in position over time. Acceleration is a change in velocity over time. Time is the datum, the fundamental framework upon which everything is based. It is a priori.
Time Is Relative To The Observer
Albert Einstein questioned the absolute nature of this parameter of time, and his resulting theory of relativity forever changed physics and the way we see the world. He maintained that what is absolute is not time, but rather its relationship to space or position. This is of course is the meaning of velocity and his famous constant "c" is the speed of light which is approximately 186,000 miles per second.
Since light travels so quickly, we, being stationary observers, may perceive things simultaneously which, in reality, are not simultaneous at all.
If certain phenomena are observed by different observers all traveling at different but very high speeds close to the speed of light, then these same phenomena observed might very well be recorded in a different sequential order by these different observers. Time is therefore relative to the observer.
As opposed to the arrangement in classical physics where time and space are separate and static, in modern physics, particularly in high-energy physics where sub-atomic particles race around at speeds close to the speed of light, time and space are intimately and dynamically connected. They can change.
Time is the fourth dimension in the space-time continuum, and it therefore follows that the all-too-comfortable three-dimensional space model might also look a little differently in modern physics. It too can change.
In the spiritual or mystical world of the East, the understanding of time and space is different.
Everything Is Here And Now
Indian poet and biographer Ashvaghosha of the 1st century, thousands of years before Newton ever saw an apple fall from a tree, wrote, "Space exists only in relation to our particularizing consciousness."
So space is our invention, a human invention. Around the same time in Tzfat, Israel-revered Kabbalist, Ha'Ari, is said to have experienced no separation between the past, present, and future. Everything is here and now.
For him, time was, probably still is, a human invention. There are legends in fact of many other great Kabbalists who would travel through time and routinely defy our conventional notions of space.
In the East, space and time are seen as constructs of the mind. They are components of the systems or "maps" we create to describe reality. As philosopher Alfred Korzybski said, "The map is not the territory." Mathematics is the language we use and science is our construct to describe nature. These are our maps, not to be confused with the territory.
Modern physics can thus give an understanding nod to Eastern Mysticism. Physicist Mendel Sachs writes, "…the space and time coordinates are only the elements of a language that is used by an observer to describe his environment."
Ashvaghosha continues, "Space is nothing but a mode of particularization and it has no real existence of its own."
No real existence, that is, in the reality beyond our own minds. These are our creations our abstractions - time and space. As such, as we explore our world more deeply, they are bound to change.
As a sculptor carefully carving out his block, so are scientists shaping their theories. What we alter in the element of time will likely affect the element of space. They are inextricably linked.
According to Buddhist philosopher, D.T. Suzuki, "There is no space without time, no time without space; they are interpenetrating."
Uncertainity Principle
This interpenetrating is what led Werner Heisenberg to his famous Uncertainty Principle. Because of the time-space relationship, a particle's position and its momentum, and hence its velocity cannot both be known with absolute certainty. The more we know about its position, the less we know about its movement.
The more we know about its movement, the less we know about its position. Like the Tao, there seems to be an element of one in the other, almost like a reflection. The Upandishads say, "Where there is duality, as it were, there one sees another."
Hindu master, Swami Vivekananda, wrote, "Time, space, and causation are like the glass through which the Absolute is seen… In the Absolute there is neither time, space, nor causation."
Everything is time and space? On another level, not at all, but it is certainly our means to understand what is on that level and what might lay beyond.