From: utzoo!decvax!pur-ee!purdue!Physics:retief
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: time: as considered as a ...
Article-I.D.: pur-phy.415
Posted: Thu Jul 29 10:37:23 1982
Received: Fri Jul 30 04:49:25 1982

Some guy purdue!pur-ee!decvax!harpo!uwvax!doug wrote in with these questions.

   Is not space-time just there?  If we really do exist in a 4-dimensional
   space-time then isn't some sort of determinism natural? It is not as though
   we exist in "space" which is independent of "time".  Are they not supposed
   to be all of the same structure?  How can we "move" from one point in
   space-time to another?  Move with reference to what?  What is the "rate"
   of the passage of time?  dt/dt?

Well, Mr. purdue!pur-ee!decvax!harpo!uwvax!doug:
   You ask a lot of questions!
      The answers are found in any good book on special relativity.
      Things like, there is a dt/dt only it's called dt/d(tau) where
     tau is a 'proper' time measured in a 'proper' frame.  A 'proper'
     frame is not the "absolute" frame that the ether was supposed to
     be but it is the next best thing.  Space-time is a framework on which
     events happen and these events (not space-time) affect the future.
      Indeed, time is 'independent' of space, just like x is independent
     of y or up is independent of horizontal.  Movement in space-time
     is measured with respect to any convenient 'spot' , but then again
     never forget that everything is relative.

	- D. Bartholomew -