Everything that the human being does is related in some way to time. Yet, so few know what time is. Time is the duration between two events.
Any two events are usually adequate to establish time. The moment when an action commences and when it ends or continues. For example, age begins at one’s birth and may end at one’s death. However, age continues to exist for those who are still alive.
Another concept of time is related to processes. Just like an action, a process needs an initial condition to exist. This may not necessarily be an exact known hour or moment. It focuses on a beginning and an end. One known example is photosynthesis.
This process allows plants to manufacture food using the sunlight. However, there is no established date or chronological data. Nonetheless, we know that the process has occurred when there is evidence of food. This may be a bud, a flor, or a fruit.
Time does depend on actions, conditions, processes, or events to make it exist.
How to Measure Time
Notably, human time is based on the solar system using three of its main Astros: the sun, the Earth, and the moon. These have been used in various formats to establish universal time standards. Some of these include
- Days: A day is the quantity of time that it takes the Earth to rotate once on its axis
- Month: The number of days that it takes the Moon to complete an orbit around the Earth
- Year: This is the number of days that it takes the Earth to make an orbit around the sun.
In addition, time has been further divided into units that allow for calculating the smaller duration of events. These are seconds, minutes, and hours. The process of establishing existence dates back to the Babylonian Empire.
According to Wikipedia, medieval astronomers such as al-Biruni and Sacrobosco divided the hour into 60-minute periods of 60 seconds each; this comes from Babylonian astronomy, where the corresponding terms denoted the time necessary for the Sun to revolve through the ecliptic moment in one minute or second
While time is not substantive, it is an invaluable asset in our daily lives.
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