Assuming time exists would you write it is objective, or relative? For example should the observer count with value (i.e. given that two is twice as large as one, and three is three times as large as one) would you write this is the passing of time(s)? Time:-----------------> Observer:123456789 What I'm questioning is this: can the observer count the passing of time simply by using the value of mathematics, or would you write it is objective?
Relative. Time dilation is always relative between different states of relative motion (<c) and to a lesser extent, relative positions in gravitational fields.
I wouldn't contrast objective with relative, I'd contrast it to subjective. So I guess that I'd lean towards saying that time is both relative and objective. It's like distance. For me, the city of San Francisco is less than 40 miles away. For somebody in Europe or Japan, that wouldn't be true and the distance would be much greater. But while the distance between each of us and a particular geographical point is going to be relative to each of our locations, it's still an objective distance. I think that's probably true for time dilation as well. At least according to special relativity, time passes at different rates as observed by observers moving at high velocities relative to each other. But the differences in the rates is still related to their relative motion in an objective way. If your 1,2,3 and so on are minutes or seconds, they are still going to add in the conventional way for both observers. One minute, two minutes, three... The minutes just won't have equal duration for both observers. The other observer's minutes will seem distorted relative to each observers own local minutes. But that distortion will be linked to their relative motion in a way that's the same for both of them. Sure, the mathematics of counting/addition wouldn't be any different. What's changing is the value of what's being counted.
