Why do we care about a number in the grand scheme of things?

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"If nobody perceives the passage of time, does time exist?" is pretty much the same question as the classic "If a tree falls in a forest and nobody hears it, does it make a noise?"

Time is a name we give to something we percieve. It's no more a human invention than, for example, the movement of a planet. Both are events in spacetime measured relative to something. We have created units to measure space and time and those are human inventions, but the things themselves are not. The movement of a planet is both space and time, since it's a change in position in space (relative to something) occuring over time.

The misunderstanding arises from the fact that time is not fundamental to a lot of physics. Equations usually don't even have time as a factor in them. It's usually a factor when those equations are applied to reality, though.

For example:

If you burn some wood, heat, light, sound and burnt wood will happen. It's at least theoretically possible to calculate how much of each if you know the relevant information and the relevant equations. It's also at least theoretically possible to apply the information and equations in the opposite direction and determine the details of the unburnt wood from the heat, light, sound and burnt wood. What's not possible is unburning burnt wood. Time exists. The wood was unburnt, it burned, it is burnt.
 
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Angilion said:
"If nobody perceives the passage of time, does time exist?" is pretty much the same question as the classic "If a tree falls in a forest and nobody hears it, does it make a noise?"

Time is a name we give to something we percieve. It's no more a human invention than, for example, the movement of a planet. Both are events in spacetime measured relative to something. We have created units to measure space and time and those are human inventions, but the things themselves are not. The movement of a planet is both, since it's a change in position in space (relative to something) occuring over time.
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But that requires man
 
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