Thursday, May 18, 2017

Direction, Space, Time

Either implicitly or explicitly, depending on the formulation, Direction is a fundamental component of Newton's Laws.  Now, Newton is a proponent of the concept of Space as Absolute.  But, Direction, which is asymmetrical, as the common symbol the arrow aptly illustrates, is not entailed in that concept.  However, it is entailed in that of Absolute Time.  For, Time is essentially ordered, i. e. the concept is meaningless without the differentiation and non-substitutability of Before and After.  The popular image of 'going back in time' is no counter-example to that anisotropy--e. g. in 'traveling' from 10 AM to 9 AM, the former is the Before and the latter, the After.  So, in a methodical development of his Newton's system, Direction is derivable only from Time.

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