Notes on “The Dimensionality of Time”
An important drawback of the Ptolemaic geocentric Universe was that the rotation of the earth was imported into all operations, whether relevant or not. The Copernican system removed this earth rotation, both for making calculations, but perhaps more importantly, conceptually.
A similar step forward can be taken by removing measuring-rods from space-time. This can be simply done by inverting the usual statement that the velocity of electromagnetic waves in vacuo is constant. Instead the equally valid statement can be made that all locations have fundamental and irreducible time-intervals separating them.
If, in the first instance, the scalar properties of these intervals are considered, then there is a complete geometric replacement of space, but without the concept of length and without measuring-rods.
Perth Australia 27th August 1988
B. Newsam