21 quotes
Perhaps the first to approach the fourth dimension from the side of physics, was the Frenchman, Nicole Oresme, of the fourteenth century.
He uses the phrase "fourth dimension" (4am dimensionem).
It must have required enormous effort for man to overcome his natural tendency to live like the animals in a continual present.
Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day (1988)
The absence of free mobility in time makes it much more difficult for us to be sure that a process takes the same time whenever it is repeated.
Natural Philosophy of Time (1980)
Man must have been conscious of memories and purposes long before he made any explicit distinction between past, present, and future.
Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day (1988)
Cosmology is peculiar among the sciences for it is both the oldest and the youngest.
Theories of the Universe (1958)
In the Timaeus Plato had expounded a theory that outside the universe, which he regarded as bounded and spherical, there was an infinite empty space.
The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology (1949)
From this exiguous basis, formulae of gravitation more accurate than those of Newton have been derived.
The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology (1949)
Another interesting feature of the Einstein universe is that in principle it could be circumnavigated by a ray of light.
The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology (1949)
Language itself inevitably introduced an element of permanence into the world. For, although speech itself is transitory, the conventionalized sound symbols of language transcended time.
Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day (1988)
Our idea of the universe as a whole remains a product of the imagination.
Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day (1988)
The development of rational thought actually seems to have impeded man's appreciation for the significance of time.
Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day (1988)
Galileo had raised the concepts of space and time to the status of fundamental categories by directing attention to the mathematical description of motion.
The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology (1949)
The basic objection to attempts to deduce the unidirectional nature of time from concepts such as entropy is that they are attempts to reduce a more fundamental concept to a less fundamental one.
Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day (1988)
Time is naturally associated by us with counting, which is the simplest of all rhythms. It is surely no accident that the words 'arithmetic' and 'rhythm' come from the two Greek terms which are derived from a common root meaning 'to flow'.
Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day (1988)
Not until the pioneer work of Rutherford and his colleagues was the possibility of nuclear reactions and transformations as sources of stellar energy envisaged.
Why the Sun Shines (1957)
[Time is not] a mysterious illusion of the intellect. ..It is an essential feature of the universe.
The Nature of Time (1961)
The history of natural philosophy is characterized by the interplay of two rival philosophies of time — one aiming at its "elimination" and the other based on the belief that it is fundamental and irreducible.
Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day (1988)
Space-time is curved in the neighborhood of material masses, but it is not clear whether the presence of matter causes the curvature of space-time or whether this curvature is itself responsible for the existence of matter.
The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology (1949)
Our conscious appreciation of the fact that one event follows another is of a different kind from our awareness of either event separately. If two events are to be represented as occurring in succession, then—paradoxically—they must also be thought of simultaneously.