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Re: time squared & time cubed



Tim O'Donnell wrote:

Some physical quantities have time^2 (energy/work) and
time^3 (power) as bases units. Now I know I move
forward in time and I can imagine moving backward in
time. Can anyone help me imagine moving left/right or
up/down in time or does time^2 and time^3 have some
other type of meaning? It came up in class yesterday.

1) I understand time squared and time cubed. I know what
that means.

2) I don't understand left/right or up/down in time. And
if that did mean anything, it probably wouldn't have
anything to do with time squared or time cubed.

Was there a reason for hypothesizing a connection between
idea (1) and idea (2)? I'm not seeing it.

The notion of "what direction" is independent of
"what power law" I would think.

==================

BTW, what about other forms of time-dependence?
-- A bacterial population grows exponentially in time.
-- A random walk makes progress like sqrt of time.

In fact, that's the basis of a nerdy joke. Suppose
I'm working on something, but haven't found a systematic
approach to the problem. Somebody asks me if I'm
making progress. The answer is
"Sure, progress like sqrt of time."