Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My question is about time and how the concept of time is understood and used in science.

Please let me explain where I am coming from briefly first.

I have always think that time was a mental construct we humans created because we are conscious of memories (past), imagination (future) and also because of the friction between different cycles in nature like our life span, rotation of the earth around itself and around the sun etc.. It seems like there is no time as an element outside our consciousness and again it looks only as a really helpful abstract tool we humans created unconsciously to mange life better. Summarizing I thought our concept of time was a result of our observation of the transformation of matter from its current state to another and the different “circular cycles and rhythms”.

When I read about science time is used in so many theories and taken in count as one more physical factor like gravity, speed, etc… Physicists seem to claim that yes there is a “physical” element that is part of the universe we live in just like force, mass, speed etc.…. In case time exists, it seems like it is only part of matter but doesn’t exist outside of it since it is only in matter where you can measure time.

Could you please give me an example or brief explanation that I can understand in order to have an experience of time as science understands it so I can somehow give it a “form” and form a concept to understand it better? Seems really difficult for me to locate it.
Thanks so much for your knowledge

Hello,

The Ask the Expert forums are for students in grades K-12 (and their teachers and parents) who are doing hands-on science projects. If you are doing a hands-on science project, please describe your project including your hypothesis and the experiments you plan to conduct. Otherwise, there are other sites on the internet where your questions would be more appropriate.

Thank you,
Madeline
Moderator