Year: 1999
Type: preprint
Abstract: Time can be defined as the duration between events. It is irreversible. When used as a variable in quantifying the changing properties of matter, this irreversibility of time is incompatible with Newton's deterministic mechanics and with its quantum mechanical prolongation. Experimental evidence, involving rejection of the traditional isolation paradigm, points to a solution of this paradox. No system may be thought of as isolated. Irreversibility is imported from ``elsewhere''. The popular objection of the followers of determinism, consisting in extrapolating local behaviour to the scale of the universe and stressing alleged contradictions generated by the non-isolation hypothesis, is intellectually unacceptable. It is unjustifiable to draw conclusions by extrapolating beyond the domain of scientific observation.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: de Hemptinne, X.
Institution: KU Leuven
Language: English
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2116679273