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Of Clocks and Calenders

One of the most common questions is “What time is it?” For scientists, this is actually a tough question to answer.

We measure time by finding things that happen regularly in nature. For example, we measure time in terms of days, which is the time it takes for the Earth to turn once on its axis. We measure longer periods in years which is the time it takes for the Earth to complete one trip around the sun.

However, we are faced with a big problem when we attempt to make our calendar. The actual length of time in a solar year is three hundred and sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-five point nine, six, seven, six, eight seconds.

We try to fix this awkward travel time around the sun by adding an extra day to our calendar every four years, which gives us our leap year. However, even this is too simple. We have to make a further adjustment to allow for the discrepancy which adds up to seven days every thousand years.

As you can see, the question ‘What time is it?’ is a trickier issue here on Earth than it would first seem. But if you happen to be visiting a black hole in space, your problems would be even more challenging.

Time actually stops inside a black hole because it reaches a point where no change takes place. No physical processes go on that give any meaning to the idea of time. Physicists simply say that time stops. In a black hole, you could not even begin to answer the question of time.

So the next time somebody asks you “What time is it?”, tell them that you really don’t know for sure!

Usually, we’re not too concerned with the problems scientists face in the accurate measuring of time. We just don’t have time for such detail! And that is one of the great problems humans face. We’re all running out of time.

Most people notice that time seems to accelerate as they get older. The most common explanation for this is that the more years we accumulate, the smaller the percentage of our total life each year accounts for. A four-year-old finds a year an unimaginably long time - 25% of his life. A forty-year-old finds a year flying by - a mere 2.5% of his life, and he has a whole lot more he has to cram into it than the four-year-old. For the eighty-year-olds, a year represents a mere 1.25% of their lives.

Eventually, we run out of time altogether. Given the limits we face, the next best thing we can do is make good use of the time we have. Most of us, looking over our lives, recognize that we have missed opportunities and wasted time. So it is wise to stop from time to time to evaluate our lives: where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re headed.

It’s good to reflect on our lives, but the ultimate analysis comes when our time as material beings on Earth is over and we look back over the entire course of our lives. Will we see that we have taken advantage of the opportunities we had to know God and develop a relationship with the One who will seal our eternal destiny?

No matter how accurately we measure it, time is running out for us all. The question that grabs our attention today is: What will happen when we step out of time and into eternity?

David Humphreys and Ron Hughes
© August 2006