Suppose a star went supernova in 1509 CE the star is 500 light years away so we wont see the event until some time in 2009. The event happened 499 years ago but to us it will have happened in 1909 when the photons reach us. Relative to us the event hasn't occurred.
bluescat48;
Not to pick on you, but I don't see how your and others explainations are anything other than Newtonian physics. It appears your explaination contains a "universal time" or a "universal now", and then you proceed foward to say it did happen then, but for you and your PoV only when you noticed it.
No problem, but I don't see, like cavediver said, how this makes time a dimension like space. Your example and the others about the Sun are just like 3 guys hunting in a field. If someone shoots, the "now" for each is different based on the speed of sound. This is no big deal.
Somehow, I think there is a bit more going on here, as I think this simple explaination has been known for a long time.
If time is a dimension, should we be able to move through it like we can space?
Maybe cavediver can clarify, as I'm looking to understand in a practical sense what TIME being a dimension means.The explainations I've seen here would be no different than relating "time" to the speed of sound.
Don't you think so?
Best regards
Petro