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The Arrow of Time

Why do things happen in sequence? Is it possible to travel back in time? Hypography looks at some theories and articles which discuss the arrow of time.

Posted by Tormod Guldvog
13 September, 2001 04:09:27

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The concept of an “arrow of time” is meant to describe how events seem to happen in relation to each other. We perceive that everything that happens has a cause. But can something which happen in the future change something which has happened in the past? If the arrow of time is irreversible, this will never happen. One of the websites suggested below claim that this is true. However, there are alternative theories which regard time as a current which can turn and twist like any other force.

Read some or all of these pages – and then take our poll. Can things travel back in time?

Related Links

The Arrow of Time In an Aether Universe
http://www.magna.com.au/~prfbrown/ross_t08.html
A very readable text by Ross Tessien on what causes the arrow of time.

Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point
http://www.usyd.edu.au/philosophy/price/TAAP.html
This is the homepage for a book on the arrow of time, by Huw Price. The first chapter is published on the site.

The Arrow of Electromagnetic Time and Generalized Absorber Theory
http://www.npl.washington.edu/npl/int_rep/dtime/dtime.html
This is a very heavy paper on the arrow of time, by J. G. Cramer at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Time's Arrow: Particles cannot go back to the future
http://bulletin.cern.ch/9847/art1/Text_E.html
A news release from CERN which states that the arrow time is inreversible.

New Scientist: Time
http://www.newscientist.com/nsplus/insight/time/time.html
A collection of New Scientist articles on time. There is a link to a very interesting article on the Arrow of time near the bottom of the page.

Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time
http://artsci.wustl.edu/~landc/html/gould/
The complete (and very long) text of a paper by Stephen Jay Gould.

Time's arrow may make U-turns in universe
http://www.sciencenews.org/20000101/fob5.asp
An article in ScienceNews.com which states that it is possible for time to flow backwards.

Entropy and the arrow of time
http://www.physlink.com/ae261.cfm
A page with a Physlink.com expert answers. The main theme is entropy, but this is closely related to the arrow of time.

Baez on Explaining Time's Arrow
http://www.qedcorp.com/pcr/pcr/baeztime.html
A discussion paper on the arrow of time as it is presented by Hawkins, Laflamme and Lyons. This is a very technical document.

Time's Arrow of Many Directions
http://www.everythingforever.com/f_probs.htm
A good read on the possibilities of time moving in several directions, written by Devin Harris.