Physics is a field of study full of vastly confusing information. Some of this information, while scientifically provable, conflicts directly with our perception of reality. One theory, known as the Wave-particle duality of light, declares that light is both waves and particles at the same time. The concept, which dates back to the 17th century, is still as confounding for the man in the street today as it was back then.
It seems physicists have now done it again by suggesting that time does not actually exist. Patently, to human beings, time definitely exists. We wake in the morning, move through our day over a period of time and arrive back home at some point later. The old adage of “time waits for no man” seems to hold true. Or does it?
The trouble all started when Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, a theory that governs the physics of large scale, clashed with Quantum Physics, the field of study that attempts to describe the world of the tiny. This is where the Wave-particle duality first became verifiable. Physicists have for years being trying to unite these two competing areas of study by searching for a Grand Unification Equation, believing that things on both the large and small scale should ultimately be related.
A little over 40 years ago, two leading physicists, John Wheeler and Bryce DeWitt developed such an equation. However, it was immediately very contentious since, by working through the equation, the concept of time is removed. The equation, while tying up many loose ends, effectively proved that time did not exist at the most fundamental level of matter.
While the concept is baffling, it seems the physics may be correct, and what we perceive as “time” is really a measurable effect due to the motion of the large scale world around us. As one digs deeper and deeper into the small scale world of atoms, protons and quantums, the concept of time becomes less relevant.
This thinking is summed up well by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The NIST is the guardian of the national atomic clock that provides the standard reference for all other clocks. The clock guardians claim that their clock does not measure time at all. Time is defined by the ticks of their clock, and is essentially a human creation allowing us to create order in our otherwise chaotic lives.
Physics would appear to agree with them.
