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Concept
Philosophy of physics
Summary
In philosophy, philosophy of physics deals with conceptual and interpretational issues in modern physics, many of which overlap with research done by certain kinds of theoretical physicists. Philosophy of physics can be broadly divided into three areas:
interpretations of quantum mechanics: mainly concerning issues with how to formulate an adequate response to the measurement problem and understand what the theory says about reality.
the nature of space and time: Are space and time substances, or purely relational? Is simultaneity conventional or only relative? Is temporal asymmetry purely reducible to thermodynamic asymmetry?
inter-theoretic relations: the relationship between various physical theories, such as thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. This overlaps with the issue of scientific reduction.
Philosophy of space and time
The existence and nature of space and time (or space-time) are central topics in the philosophy of physics.
Time in physics
Time is often thought to be a fundamental quantity (that is, a quantity which cannot be defined in terms of other quantities), because time seems like a fundamentally basic concept, such that one cannot define it in terms of anything simpler. However, certain theories such as loop quantum gravity claim that spacetime is emergent. As Carlo Rovelli, one of the founders of loop quantum gravity has said: "No more fields on spacetime: just fields on fields". Time is defined via measurement—by its standard time interval. Currently, the standard time interval (called "conventional second", or simply "second") is defined as 9,192,631,770 oscillations of a hyperfine transition in the 133 caesium atom. (ISO 31-1). What time is and how it works follows from the above definition. Time then can be combined mathematically with the fundamental quantities of space and mass to define concepts such as velocity, momentum, energy, and fields.
Both Newton and Galileo,
as well as most people up until the 20th century, thought that time was the same for everyone everywhere.
Official source
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