The Physical Concept of Time

Abstract

The concept of time has been discussed since the earliest records of philos­ophy, when science had not yet become a separate subject. It is rooted in the subjective experience of the ‘passing’ present or moment of awareness, which appears to ‘flow’ through time and thereby to separate dynamically the past from the future. This has led to the formal representation of time by the real numbers, and of the present by a point that ‘moves’ in the direction characterized by their sign.