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 -