Our next topic-driven chat session will be held on Saturday, October 15th, at 3:00pm Central Standard Time (CST) or GMT-6. Be sure and vote in this thread's poll so we can all know who's attending. Of course, drop-ins are also welcome, no requirement to register first.
The topic is...
Time
It's About Time We Did This! On the one hand time is easy to define --
"A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future." --
www.dictionary.com . It is more difficult, however, to provide an uncontroversial and clear definition of time at a deeper level of understanding.
Questions to Ponder:- How and why is time related to space?
- Is time continuous?
- Is time uni-directional?
- Is time one-dimensional?
- Is there a smallest unit of time?
- Are there locations in which time doesn't exist. Location may be the wrong term to use since location implies space which can not be separated from time. But you know what I mean.
References:
- Time - Wikipedia reference.
- Time-Travel Forum - ToeQuest reference.
- Time-Traveler Forum - ToeQuest Time Traveler Hotline.
- The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. Page 376 has a good section titled, "What are Space and Time, Really, and Can We Do without Them?"
- The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene. Dr Greene's use of the loaf-of-bread metaphor for space-time is well done. You can find examples of this on pages 59, 70, Chapter 5 - The Frozen River, "Does Time Flow?".
Statistics
This will be chat session #14. Since our last chat we have grown from 786 to 823 members representing 92 countries (up from 91). Also we've had 153 members active over the preceding 30 days which is down from 169 that was recorded two weeks ago.
The Usual Timezone Stuff
Ok, the usual stuff... As I already said, the chat session will be held this Saturday at 3:00pm (CST). You can use the
timezone converter to convert to your local time. Once there, enter the day and time as specified above, then select US/Central in the "From Time Zone" column and your own location in the "To Time Zone" column, then click Convert. Be sure and unclick the "Use Current Date/Time" option. This will give you the time of the chat meeting in your own local time.
Some other areas:
Texas, U.S. - Saturday, 3:00pm
California, U.S. - Saturday, 1:00pm
India - Sunday, 1:30am
London - Saturday, 9:00pm
Madrid, Spain - Saturday, 10:00pm
Melbourne, Australia - Sunday, 6:00am
New Zealand - Sunday, 8:00am
Sweden - Saturday, 10:00pm
Canada, Eastern - Saturday, 4:00pm
Pakistan - Sunday, 1:00am
Future Chat
These topic-driven chat sessions will continue every other Saturday at 3pm (CST). These will be moderated and a transcript of the chat will be recorded and available for later review. A weekly un-moderated and open-discussion chat will begin in the near future, based on traffic patterns on the website.
We'll meet in Flash Chatroom. See you there!
Regards,
--Robert