Time has played a central role in mathematics from its very
beginnings, yet it remains one of the most mysterious aspects of
the world in which we live. The beginnings of civilisation on
Earth required a knowledge of the seasons, and the mysteries
surrounding the length of the year, the length of the day and
the length of the month began to be studied. All the world
religions gave time a central role, be it in astrology, stories
of creation, cyclical world histories, notions of eternity, etc.
Philosophers have tried to come to grips with the concept; some
have argued that time is a basic property of the universe while
others have argued that it is an illusion or a property of the
human mind and not of the world. A huge effort has been put into
making devices to measure time with ever increasing accuracy
from the beginnings of recorded history to the present day.
Quantum mechanics and relativity theory in the 20th century have
shown the complexities, and sometime apparent paradoxes, in the
notion of time. Yet