The Human Illusion of Time

That is the central aspect of understanding that process. A clepsydra could determine only the duration of its physical fluid flow. That device could never directly measure the duration of any other physical process. Thus, any so-called "measurement" should be done artificially by synchronizing the moments of starting and stopping leaking with the first and end points of another measuring physical process by human hands.

Therefore, Galileo created a method of measurement in which human activity was involved. It was a unique measurement method because other methods do not need such activity from humans. For instance, measuring mass involves only direct physical interaction between an object with a given property (mass) and the physical measuring device. In that case, a man needs only to put an object on a mass measuring device (on a scale) and see an indication of that device. Moreover, an indication of a measuring device remains constant as long as the object's mass does not change. In other words, a physical measuring device interacts directly with an object's measuring property.

It was possible to use the mass of the leaking liquid to estimate the duration of another physical process. A researcher can make measurements of the mass of some liquid that got out from a clepsydra in two experiments. The rate on those masses gives precise information about the rate of duration of the two processes. That is an alternative way of using clepsydra. For example, in the case of Galileo’s experiments, two clepsydras produce the same mass of liquid for the duration of the falling of two different objects (bodies) because both objects fall from the same altitude and have the same acceleration equal to g.

Hence, Galileo was responsible for the implementation of the measurement of duration in physical experiments, but that way had one critical problem. Galileo did not explain the correlation between the duration of physical processes and the notion of Time. On the one hand, he used a clepsydra to determine the duration of fluid flow from that device. On the other hand, he estimates the duration of the body fall. After each observation, he compared the duration of the body fall and the duration of liquid flow from a clepsydra. Still, he needed help explaining which physical aspect is responsible for the interconnection between the duration of each isolated physical process. There is not any physical interaction between those processes in any case. Still, Galileo needs something that meets his point of view on experimentation.

As a result, he needed some property that he could not see, describe, or put into the experiment. Still, that property must be responsible for the interaction between the durations of two independent physical processes to make them comparable by their duration. He used the notion of Time as a link to that property. From his point of view, the property makes a connection between any duration of any physical process using some invisible interaction, making them comparable to each other. Still, the property remains hidden from humans and undetectable for any direct measurement. Thus, the greatest delusion of physics was created at its first step. Saying generally, it was the first misstep of physics.

Hence, that person (as well as any other of his followers) could not conduct any experiment supporting the idea of Time as some part of physical reality. He disagrees with his statement: “Experimentation became a recognized method for discovering the facts of nature” (see above). In other words, he never conducted an experiment that shows the physical reality of Time. It was the first step that brought the word (Time) with questionable meaning in physics. Moreover, that word had no relation to physical reality from the launch of its usage in physics.

As mentioned above, clepsydra was used widely in the Middle Ages. Clepsydra appears as a device with a constant flow of liquid or drops from the clepsydra's reservoir. Such devices were used for many years across Europe. Eventually, the liquid flow from clepsydra was associated with some "magical" property that all such devices share. As mentioned above, Galileo shared the same delusion. Any number of equally built clepsydras ever shows a matching rate of flow from a device and the same rate of water level drop in a reservoir. There was no analog in the natural world for such a process. Any clepsydra shows the same operation rate for a whole day and night at the top and the bottom of a tower, inside and outside of a building, and so on.

Moreover, as soon as a clepsydra was put in a closed room under the ground, it showed the same rate of operation that was similar to any other identical clepsydra that remains on the surface of the Earth. Such behavior of clepsydras seemed like magic for people in the Middle Ages. What is that thing that keeps readings of an operating clepsydra equal to readings of any other twin operating clepsydra? That question overwhelmed those people.

Despite such strangeness, the operation of clepsydra is effortless to understand. It uses only interaction between the liquid in its reservoir and the Earth's gravitational field, which was unknown in the Middle Ages. Readings of two identical clepsydras were equal because a clepsydra was used in an exceedingly thin layer relative to the radios of the planet. That is a modern point of view, of course. The Earth was flat for people living in the Middle Ages, and gravitation does not exist. Hence, they had no chance to get the right answer to the question about the operation of clepsydra.

However, they produced some explanations for apparent facts. They believe that something (a deep cause that cannot be reasonable for the human mind) exists everywhere and causes equal readings for any identically built clepsydras despite their location. In other words, all clepsydras were interconnected by some unnoticeable interaction for a man. That thing penetrates everything without any trace of penetration and appears everywhere, even in a closed room. It ever changes and flows, and that property causes a change in the reading of any clepsydra at the same rate. The constant flow of liquid from a clepsydra and the flow of that thing looked to those people as inevitable proof of the uniform flow of that thing. In other words, the constant flow of fluid from a clepsydra follows the movement of that thing.

That was the basis of the mind shift mentioned above. The word "Chronos" has been linked to a God for the Ancient people. As a result, questions about the fundamental nature of Chronos had been answered. Chronos is one of the gods, but the word "Time," with its meaning originated in the Middle Ages, possessed a pointless link. It was a link to something that people were unable to understand. Hence, they could not provide any definition of that word. That is perfect evidence of their incapability to understand the meaning of that word. It was the greatest failure of the human mind.