what is time ? what a question !

Some time ago, following some exam instructions,my students had to read an article about whether it would ever be possible for man to go back in time . Or perhaps to the future. We read an article proposed by the exam board. However my students were more befuddled after reading than they had been before . As a TEACHER, i FELT i had to write something for them so that it might be a bit easier to write something about this conundrum like topic that sets us all grasping for a defnition that is almost impossible to come by RIGHT OR WRONG ? I told them that in my view one thing is TIME and another one was OUR PERFECPTION of TIME On earth, we are born, grow , get old and finally die . OUR TIME is gone from a physical point of view But when we are buried, our matter gives rise to a new form of life . So has time passed ? Yes, it certainly has, but not for the universe. Time beyond the arth is different from our perception on earth . Somehow we are reborn in a different body: a new plant . And life may continue WHAT IS THE TIME ? a VERY FUNNY ANECDOTE CAME TO MY MIND WHILE i WAS TRYING UNSUCCESSFULLY TO EXPLAIN WHAT TIME WAS TO MY BEFUDDLED TRAINEES tHis is a true story Back in 1979 I had set off from the airport of MANAOS bound for Africa. That was the last time I D looked at my watch . It was 3 pm. The flight over the ocean proved a little difficult for me , as I have always been afraid of the sea Somehow bored and anxious about finally landing somewhere, I decided to ask the flight attendant what time it was . My watch had stopped , as if no time had passed . Puzzled, the flight attendat asked : RIO TIME OR IVORY COAST TIME, MADAM ? Ivory coast was our first reachable destination on the African continent and RIO , which we had left behind sounded possible for the lady to give me some information about my daunting question . I noticed she was short of an answer . I replied : No, Neither of the two I mean now, here . We were neither in RIO, nor were we in IVORY COAST yet . So I repeated my question : WHAT TIME IS IT HERE NOW ? tHOSE TWO SIMPLE WORDS puzzled her even more . She was unable to answer, she said . sHE EYED AT ME , AS IF i HAD put her to a test . Some minutes later, and hearing a buzz of voices behind me who seemed to be discussing my question , i saw her coming up the aisle to my seat . Dutifully she intended to provide me with an answer . I first thought of a number : it is ...... here and now, madam But the point was, that our here and now had already changed . SOME TECHNICAL EXPLANATION ABOUT TIME ZONES AND MEASUREMENTS were on the piece of paper she had brought with her THAT ONLY THE PILOT COULD MAKE WITH HIS SPECIAL CLOCKS . There was no time there . Because the more puzzling question was : Where were we exaCTLY ? TO BEGIN WITH , THE NOW HAD ALREADY CHANGED . NOW WERE IN A DIFFERENT PLACE from where I had brought up my eery question After what sounded like an impossible argumentation on my part she provided some mathematical operations which left me as confused as I had been so far, Have you ever felt this awkward just by asking such a silly question ? Well, I did . The problem was that we were in the middle of the ocean , where only the pilot was able to calculate where we were exaCTLy . My neighbour, who by this time had immersed himself into a phylosophical debate on the question of TIME concluded : " Of course, he asserted , as the earth rotates, it is moving, so we can only know what time it is now in RIO or in IVORY COAST but we don t know what time it is where we are now . Where were we by now exactly? This is a true story . I hope you don t ask the same stupid question I asked while on flight Some time later, although I still didn t know what time it was when I asked my question, , the pilot announced the time it was at IVORY COAST, where we would soon be landing . I felt we were, after all, going back to normal But something had not been as expected while we were crossing some part of our planet From then on, aND Provided I don t have any class appointment with my students I have decided that time is an elusive issue . So, if my husband comes quite late and he fails to give a satisfactory explanation , I have decided it might be wiser to avoid asking When the BRITISH COUNCIL board asks what time is , and whether we could go back to the past or to the future I d tell them I d first like to know what time it was when I asked the question of the flight attendant . She suggested some strange mathematical operation to me . They would tell me what time it was THERE . BUT WHERE , EXACTLY ? To this day , I still don t know . I ve never known and I suspect I nevel will By the way, this stupid question set all pasengers who had heard it talking and busily trying to make those calculations to provide a final answer . We had a lovely conversation and TIME didn t seem to be too long . , PATRICIA GONZALEZ GREY