In a message dated 99-04-01 02:06:15 EST, you write:
At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> wrote..
> Using a nonlinear scale for every possible physical quantity will come as
> a shock to us who are used to linear scales. There is no doubt about it.
> Ask any student in chemistry who have learnt to work with the pH scale
> which measures the concentration of H3O+ acid in a non-linear manner.
> Their first encounters with the pH scale usually ended up in confusion!
First wanted to thank you for your efforts in responding to my previous
confusion...
This might help explain my way of thinking...
Like in the example of PH and measurement, it is a non-ratio based scale.
Another example would be compounding interest. They are non-linear
functions but are using a linear function of time as a variable in the
equation to represent the change of the non-linear function.
Another example, I studied decay functions in memory over time. Time was a
ratio measure. Whatever label we used, minutes, seconds, blah blahs...it
only had value because it remained constant. That one time interval was
following the next in a succesive order where the variance between the
time intervals were constant. The mapping of decay functions in short term
memory loss is not a linear function however. Decay rates rapidly trailed
off at some point.
In my mind time, which ever side of the equation time is on, is a linear
constant. It would hold no value otherwise. That studying how other
variables in some equation shift given the conditions, be that function
linear or non- linear, I grasp. I guess I just don't see how we could use
the concept of time as a non-linear function and still keep it as a
standard.
I can see very easily how the psychological perception of time can be
distorted. That elements within the environment change in many ways. That
we can call units of time all different names. What I see in my mind is a
line. We can measure large segments of it. We can attempt to measure even
the smallest. But the ratio measurement quality of time as a variable only
works in mathematics because of it's linearity.
What I elude is happening is I am thinking of the use of time as a
variable in some mathematical function of measurement. I understand
colloguial uses of the word. The concept of time being used as a
non-linear constant in a mathematical equation just seemed almost
impossible.
Any wayssssss... enough said...lol
Glen
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