(This article is a collaboration between Benny Creemers, a proponent of Super Relativity and Jeff. Please visit his web site to gain a different perspective on this subject and Mark Fiorentino site for a discussion of the principals of Super Relativity.)
We have shown throughout the this blog and its companion book “The Reality of the Fourth *Spatial* Dimension” observations of our environment suggest that space is composed four *spatial* dimensions instead of four-dimensional space-time.
Many believe this implies the Newtonian concept of absolute space and time should be valid.
However, this is not true!
In the article “Defining energy†it was showed all energy including that associated with reference frames that are in relative motion would create a curvature in a “surface” of a three-dimensional space manifold with respect to a fourth spatial dimension while the article “Defining time?” Sept. 20, 2007 showed that defining it only in terms of a measure of the physical distance between sequential ordering of the causality of events would provide an unambiguous definition that is consistent with both physical and mathematical observations.
However, as was shown in the article “The reality of four *spatial* dimensions†Oct. 22, 2007 we as three-dimensional beings can only perceive the cord of an arc generated in a “surface” of three-dimensional space with respect to a four *spatial* dimension by the energy of relative motion.
Therefore because a particle or object viewed from a reference frame that was in relative motion to another would move through the greater distance associated with the arc in space generated by that motion, the time measured between those events will vary depending on the magnitude of that arc. In other words the concept of absolute time does not exist because the time interval between events in reference frames will vary depending on their relative velocities.
However one will also perceive the distance between two events in those reference frames to be shorter than would be if they were not in relative motion, because the cord of an arc is shorter than the arc itself.  Therefore, the concept of absolute length does not exist in a universe composed of four *spatial* dimensions because length in all reference frames is dependent on their relative velocities.
In other words the Newtonian concept of absolute space and time does not exist in a universe consisting of four *spatial* dimensions.
But if time is not a physical dimension as Einstein theories suggest what is it.
One way of determining what it is would be to analyze its observable properties such as that fact that is not directly perceived as matter or space but as an irreversible physical, chemical, and biological change in physical space.
This suggest a unit of time may only be a non-physical measure of when in relation to other events a physical, chemical, or biological change in physical space take place similar to how a unit of length is a non physical measure of the ordering of a position of an object in space. This is because similar to time, length is not perceived to have the physical properties of matter or space but as only as measurement of where in relation to a previous event an object is located.
Therefore, assuming the physicality of time appears to contradict the fact that as mentioned earlier most of us do not perceived time as having the physical properties of matter or space.
Additionally our perception of irreversibly of time or that it always moves in one direction forward also appears to contradict the concept of time or a space-time dimension has physical properties because it is possible to physically reverse the position of an object in space. For example, one can move an object to a different position, reverse the process and move it back to its original position three-dimensional space whereas one cannot in a space-time dimension because, as mentioned earlier observations tell us one only move forward in it.
These observations, as mentioned earlier suggest that time may be only a measure of the sequential ordering of the casualty of events because one cannot reverse the causality of an event without creating a new event thereby making it consistent with the perception of its irreversibility. This would be true in both our physical and mathematical perceptions of time.
This also defines the reason events always move forward in time because the act of reversing an event would be the next event in that sequence which must occur in the future.
In other words one can derive the reason the Newton assumption that space and time are absolute and why we as three-dimensional beings do not directly perceived time as matter or space by assuming that our universe is made up of four *spatial* dimensions instead four dimensional space time.
Later Jeff
Copyright 2008 Jeffrey O’Callaghan