[Past|Present|Future] Timetravel - Hoax?

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

If you are sincere, I cannot recommend strongly enough Khan Academy.
https://www.khanacademy.org

It's free, it's well organized, and the content that I've reviewed has been superb across a great range of education levels.

Whether your tackling a subject fresh or need a refresher, this is the place for you.

On top of all that, it's broken up into short, concise lectures, so it can be absorbed at a leisurely pace.  You don't have to commit an afternoon to a subject.

I was amazed at how much trigonometry I had retained after not using it in nearly twenty years.  I've been meaning to refresh my calculus, too.

Well,fuck.
I clicked on that link and i have to say that its a pretty good looking website.I actually like it.

@LastPoet,


Haha good one :
I'm actually on hackerrank.com .I occasionally solve some easy problems in it.But since i've final exams in like 16 days i'm coming up with more creative ideas to waste my time : Oh look its 1:30 AM haha

[LastPoet]

Knowlege is never a waste of time. FNMs suggestion is a good one. What's stopping you is your will or lack of it. Take that as you will. In all honesty work, and the whole shebang of stuff I have going on have hindered my math analisys learning. I kinda miss that, just having an afternoon scribbling math, finding ways to prove a given theorem. It is never too late, I guess.

[Pyrrho]

I'd like to start this thread by reminding everyone that i debated over in my last thread that this is a thread i opened for a discussion to clear some of my doubts.

char *SMDLFR = "I don't have a strong mathematical background nor a science so if i made some dumb mistake please be polite and point it out";

Past | Present | Future -Hoax?

I Think we are all familiar with the concept of Past,Present and Future.

Past is what happened.
Present is what is happening.
Future is what is going to happen.

I think everyone would agree.(If you don't - please tell us why.)

So as i was awake during a silent night at around 1:30 am i came across this thought:

1 day(24 hrs) before the present time is the past.
1 hour(60 mins) before the present time is the past.
1 min(60 seconds) before the present time is the past.
1 second before the present time is the past.

So,wouldn't it be fair to say that:

1/10 second before the present time is the past.
1/100 second before the present time is the past.
1/1000 second before the present time is the past.
1/10000 second before the present time is the past.
1/100000 second before the present time is the past.

i.e. 1/infinity second before the present time is the past. (Reminder: SMDLFR)

That is just false.  0 seconds into the past is the present.  If you continued your faulty reasoning, you would also be saying things like:

-1/infinity second before the present time is the past.

(That is just another way of saying 0 and is the present.)


-1/100000 second before the present time is the past.

(That is the future.)


When you say that 1/n seconds before the present time is in the past, that will only be true of finite positive values for n.  It is not a formula that always gets you the past.

So,i considered the number 1/infinity and i was like - wow what a small number its amazing because this frigging number is like infinitely small : 0.O)

It is not infinitely small.  It is zero.

So small that i thought perhaps this number would be negligible.(Reminder: SMDLFR)

So:
Negligible second before the present time is the past.

Wouldn't that make Past a non-existent idea?(Reminder: SMDLFR)

No.  Even if you were right (and you are not; see above), that would mean that the present was in the past, not that the past does not exist.  And of course, the conclusion is contradictory so you should realize that something is amiss (and it is; see above).

Similarly,
Wouldn't that make Future a non-existent idea?

And then i really freaked out:
Wouldn't that make Time traveling an impractical idea? And really smart scientists believe that the idea of time traveling is real.So it was obvious that my logic was faulty somewhere - i just don't know where - so i'm kind of scared.

Can someone please tell me why i'm wrong?
(I'm really not a math or science person and can very well be spitting out blunder so i hope you'd be cooperative.)

Other than that,i'd like a general discussion on the topic.

- Thank you for reading.

On what topic?  The idea that 1/infinity = 0?  Time travel?  Something else?

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Are you saying my reasoning is faulty because i assume that Past is nonexistent when i should've arrived at the conclusion that Past is Present?

Or

Are you saying my reasoning is faulty because i assumed that:

1 second before the current time is past.
1/10 second before the current time is past.
[in general]
1/n second before the current time is past.(n>0)

[IATIA]

Everything you perceive is in the past. When you look at the sun, you see what it was about 8 minutes ago. Even looking at the person next to you, the time for the light to hit your eyes and then processed will be the past once you are aware of it, so technically, the present is unperceivable.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Everything you perceive is in the past.  When you look at the sun, you see what it was about 8 minutes ago.  Even looking at the person next to you, the time for the light to hit your eyes and then processed will be the past once you are aware of it, so technically, the present is unperceivable.

Yes,i've read somewhere about those things.Its all VERY interesting information.

But in this thread i'm not talking about the perception of time.


Thank you though,for providing interesting information.

[Pyrrho]

Are you saying my reasoning is faulty because i assume that Past is nonexistent when i should've arrived at the conclusion that Past is Present?

I am saying that even if your earlier reasoning was correct (which it isn't), then you should have concluded that the present is in the past.  Zero seconds ago is the present, and if zero seconds ago is in the past (which you claimed), then that would mean that the present is in the past.  Of course, that is a self-contradictory conclusion, but it is the right conclusion for the faulty argument.  Also:

Or

Are you saying my reasoning is faulty because i assumed that:

1 second before the current time is past.
1/10 second before the current time is past.
[in general]
1/n second before the current time is past.(n>0)

It is the last of those statements that is a problem.  If n = infinity, then 1/n = 0.  Zero seconds before the current time is not the past, so your general statement is false.  It does not hold for all values of n that are greater than zero.  You also need to confine n to being less than infinity.

[LastPoet]

0.99999... =1

/thread

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

So if i confine n to be less than infinity and conclude that Past is in the Present(According to my reasoning)then my argument is valid?

You're also saying this: "I am saying that even if your earlier reasoning was correct (which it isn't)".
You're saying that my earlier reasoning is incorrect - please elaborate?

[Pyrrho]

So if i confine n to be less than infinity and conclude that Past is in the Present(According to my reasoning)then my argument is valid?

No. If you confine n to be less than infinity, you do not come to the conclusion that the present is in the past (you keep getting that part backwards!). It is because of the mistake of letting n = infinity, that your conclusion would come to the present being in the past.

You're also saying this: "I am saying that even if your earlier reasoning was correct (which it isn't)".
You're saying that my earlier reasoning is incorrect - please elaborate?

I already did that a couple of times. 1/infinity = zero. Zero seconds before the present is the present. Your earlier mistake was saying that that was the past.