Time
Related: Jahsonic's timeline - classic - history - loop - movement - narrative - early - post- - proto- - process philosophy
In narratology: ending - reverse chronology - cinematic time - real-time
Definition
Time has long been a major subject of science, philosophy and art. Though dictionaries present some (varied) definitions of time, it is difficult to provide an uncontroversial definition because there are widely divergent views about its meaning, and concerns about whether there are any simpler terms with which to define it. Scholars also disagree on whether time itself can be measured or is itself part of the measuring system. To avoid these definitional problems, many fields use an operational definition in which only the units of measurement are defined.
The measurement of time has also occupied scientists and technologists, and was a prime motivation in astronomy. Time is also a matter of significant social importance, having economic value ("time is money") as well as personal value, due to an awareness of the limited time in each day and in our lives. Units of time have been agreed upon to quantify the duration of events and the intervals between them. Regularly recurring events and objects with apparent periodic motion have long served as standards for units of time. Examples are the apparent motion of the sun across the sky, the phases of the moon, and the swing of a pendulum.
Time has historically been closely related with space, most obviously with spacetime in Einstein's general relativity. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time [Aug 2006]