What is the continuity of time and space?

Whether in novels or films, science fiction is obsessed with the concept of space-time and the possibilities it opens up: Time travel, wormholes, temporal paradoxes…It makes possible the revival of many illusions coming from a scientific reality that is barely more than a century old, and which still fascinates physicists. Space and time are in fact connected and influence each other, including in appearances that challenge our understanding of reality.

Einstein, Minkowski… Who discovered the existence of the continuity of time and space?

The concept of space-time in the strict sense of the word did not appear in the scientific field at the beginning of the nineteenth century, but these two concepts remained for a long time different from each other, especially during the era of Newtonian physics. If the beginnings of this idea appeared in particular during the Enlightenment (in D'Alembert's Encyclopedia in particular), the connection of space and time began in the works of Henri Poincaré during the nineteenth century. However, it was not until the beginning of the 20th century, with the advent of the theory of special relativity and the fundamental laws of electromagnetism. Through Albert Einstein, and especially the work of physicist Hermann Minkowski, to see the idea of ​​the space-time continuum appear for the first time.

What is the relationship between space and time and how can it be explained? identification

Continuity of time and space It makes it particularly possible to explain a phenomenon observed by astrologers, namely that time tends to “To slow down the speed“When we move on Its speed is close to the speed of light. This phenomenon, which is impossible for a person to experience on a daily basis, is very real, as proven by experiments conducted in particle accelerators. like an atomic clock, Which allows time to be measured as accurately as possible, will delay a few nanoseconds When he arrived, after a plane ride that took several hours, compared to what he had stayed on the ground. On a cosmic scale, space-time helps explain why the stars we see in the night sky are actually light-based representations of their state thousands, even millions of years ago. Space-time also makes it possible to explain scientifically the anomalies formed by black holes, which are born from the curvature of space under the influence of the masses of objects.

What dimensions make up space-time?

The space-time continuum makes it possible to represent our universe in the form of a mathematical and geometric model called Minkowski space, providing one of the great scientific upheavals of the twentieth century and making it possible to solve many of the paradoxes inherited from Newtonian mechanics. In this model of representation, the universe is no longer represented according to The three components of space, x, y, and z (length, width, and height), but supported by the fourth dimension, time, t. To facilitate representation, time is linked to a homogeneous distance quantity with the other three by multiplying it by the constant c, i.e. the speed of light in a vacuum, to obtain the fourth coordinate of the reference frame, ct, by the same principle as calculating distances in light minutes, or even in light years.

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