THE COURSE OF THE WORLD AND THE COURSE OF CLOCKS

Reinhard Folk

Johannes Kepler University

Time is measured by clocks, but what do they really indicate? In fact this question is strongly connected with our understanding of the nature of the universe. Astronomy and physics have changed this understanding from Aristotle over Newton to Einstein and changed the properties of time (in fact the property of duration) from something absolute to a property depending on the movement of the clock and its position. However the universality of our physical laws together with the ‘history’ of the universe urge for a unification of the theory of gravitation and quantum theory. Some of the theoretical approaches for this unifications create doubt in the fundamental character of time.
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