If you thought 2024 couldn’t get worse, scientists now believe that time is just an illusion.
Yep, you read that right.
According to the researchers, time may not be something fundamental to our world and is something created by ‘quantum entanglement’.
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What is quantum entanglement, I hear you cry.
Well, quantum entanglement is a complicated science term for when particles become interconnected in the way they influence each other’s state.
The theory cites that the perception of time is due to the entanglement of objects with a reference clock.
According to the researchers, the universe would appear still to anyone observing from the outside.
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Initially, scientists believed that time is interlinked with the fabric of space and could be warped by gravity, as fans of the movie Interstellar will be aware.
But this might not be the case.
According to quantum mechanics, time does not share the same flexibility, and this could upheave time’s entire nature.
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However, even though it’s a pretty cool concept which challenges the basis of our entire system in life, it’s not without its difficulties.
For example, how do you test it out to find out if it’s real?
There really isn’t much of a tangible way to do so where you can see the results, so perhaps it's not time to throw our previous understanding of time in the bin quite yet.
Researcher Alessandro Coppo and his colleagues published their findings in the Physical Review A and their paper explores how our experience of time could be a byproduct of quantum processes.
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Even though the theory is still in its baby stage, it could open the doors for a brand new understanding of the universe and how it operates.
Coppo said: "For centuries, time has entered physics as an essential ingredient that is not to be questioned. It is so deeply rooted in our conception of reality that people thought that a definition of time was not needed.
“We believe that nature is genuinely quantum."
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Before this breakthrough, time was depicted as the measure of a change in a physical quantity or a magnitude to quantify the duration of events.
Now it might be a byproduct of quantum mechanics and interlinked with quantum entanglement.
That’s crazy.
Do we have to ditch our watches, or?
Topics: Science, Technology, News