Past
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The past is the portion of time that has already occurred; it is the opposite of the future. It is also contrasted with the present. It is also regarded as the conglomerate of events that happened in a certain point in time, within the Space-time continuum. The aforementioned conception is closely related to Albert Einstein's relativity theory.
Humans have recorded the past since ancient times, and to some extent, one of the defining characteristics of human beings is that they are able to record the past, recall it, remember it and confront it with the current state of affairs, thus enabling them to plan accordingly for the future, and to theorise about it as well.
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[edit] In philosophy
According to presentism, the past does not strictly exist; however, the methods of all sciences study the world's past, through the process of evaluating evidence.
[edit] In physics
In classical physics the past is just a half of the timeline. In special relativity the past is considered as absolute past or the past cone. In Earth's scale the difference between "classical" and "relativist" past is less than 0.05 s, so it can be neglected in most cases.
[edit] In other fields
The past is the object of such fields as history, archaeology, archaeoastronomy, chronology, geology, (historical geology), historical linguistics, law, paleontology, paleobotany, paleoethnobotany, palaeogeography, paleoclimatology, and cosmology.
[edit] Quote
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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