Minkowski space is not 3D + T, it is 4D, the scientists write in their most recent paper. In other words, as they say, the universe is timeless. So while 4D spacetime is usually considered to consist of three dimensions of space and one dimension of time, the researchers view suggests that its more correct to imagine spacetime as four dimensions of space. This view doesnt mean that time does not exist, but that time has more to do with space than with the idea of an absolute time. By itself, t has only a mathematical value, and no primary physical existence. In other words, what experimentally exists are the motion of an object and the tick of a clock, and we compare the objects motion to the tick of a clock to measure the objects frequency, speed, etc. What we do measure is an objects frequency, speed, etc. But, as they note, we never really measure t. They begin by explaining how we usually assume that time is an absolute physical quantity that plays the role of the independent variable (time, t, is often the x-axis on graphs that show the evolution of a physical system). In two recent papers (one published and one to be published) in Physics Essays, Amrit Sorli, Davide Fiscaletti, and Dusan Klinar from the Scientific Research Centre Bistra in Ptuj, Slovenia, have described in more detail what this means.
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