Understanding the connection between space and time is difficult because we cannot see time or space even though we can perceive the void in space when it contains nothing
Additionally defining or describing what time is extremely difficult. Some define it only in the abstract saying that is an invention of the human consciousness that gives us a sense of order, a before and after so to speak of the changes that occur in our environment. However one can define or describe space in terms of the void we can see between objects that it contains.
In other words time and space do not appear to share any physical qualities.
Even so physicists have derived the physical structure of the universe in terms of a mathematical model that combines space and time into a single interwoven space-time continuum.
However it is difficult to understand how in a space-time environment they can physically interact when, as was just mentioned neither of them have any common properties.
Granted using mathematics one can explain how they do in terms of abstract concepts but it does not explain how and why they do in physical terms.
Yet one can use the fact that the one of the primary functions of time is to define change to form a physical image of how it interacts with space to create it.
Einstein gave us the ability to do this when he defined the energy contained in a volume of space-time in terms the constant velocity of light because that provided a method of converting a unit of time to its equivalent unit of space in four *spatial* dimensions. Additionally because the velocity of light is constant it also defined a one to one quantitative and qualitative correspondence between his space-time universe and one made up of only four *spatial* dimensions.
In other words he tells the physical properties of space and time are relative to an observer’s interpretation similar to how the measurements of their magnitudes are relative to an observer’s velocity because, as was show above one can reinterpret the mathematics associated with the space-time environment of both the General and Special Theories of Relativity purely in terms of its spatial components to create an identical one in only four *spatial* dimensions. However one must be careful not to think of this as the physical replacement of the time dimension in Einstein’s space-time universe with a spatial one because according to his mathematics they simultaneously coexist in the same geometric plain.
However the fact that one can use Einstein’s theories to qualitatively and quantitatively define the displacement he associated with energy in a space-time universe in terms of four *spatial* dimensions is bases for assuming as was done in the article “Defining energy†Nov 27, 2007 that all forms of energy can be derived in terms of a spatial displacement in a “surface” of a three-dimensional space manifold with respect to a fourth *spatial* dimension.
Doing would also allow one to form a physical image of how the geometric properties of space or time interact to create change because as mentioned earlier we can form a clear physical image of how a void in four spatial dimensions created by that displacement would cause change.
For example we can physically observe how the energy stored in the displacement of water in dam causes change in an environment when it is released or allowed to flow over it. In other words we can form a physical image of the causality of the changing level of water in the dam in terms of its movement through the spatial void between the top and bottom of the dam.
Similarly one can form a clear physical image of how and why change would occur in our three dimensional environment by assuming the energy stored in a spatial displacement in a “surface” of a three dimensional space manifold with respect to a fourth *spatial* dimension is released though the void that displacement creates in four dimensional space.
As was mentioned earlier it is difficult to form physical image of how time can interact with space because of its abstract properties.
However one can from a very clear image of how it does when one realizes that according Einstein theories the physical properties of space and time which as was shown above are relative to an observer coexist on in the same dimensional plain. Therefore an observer who looks at his theories form a spatial perspective can easily understand how change occurs in a space time-environment in terms of the physical example of water flowing over a dam.
It should be remember Einstein’s mathematical model which defines the physical geometry of our universe tells us that an all objects must simultaneously exist in both a space-time environment and one consisting of four spatial dimension because as was shown above one can use his mathematics to define two identical universes; one in four dimensional time and another made up of only four *spatial* dimensions. Which one we use to define a solution to a problem, as mentioned earlier is only dependent on how an observer interprets his mathematics.
Later Jeff
Copyright Jeffrey O’Callaghan 2016