TIME (AS. time; connected with rid, 011G. zit, Ger. Zeit, time, Eng. tide, Skt. a-dill, boundless). In the philosophical sense, a term used in the description of the succession of phenomena. Time has been considered by some philosophers to he an illusion; by others to be a confused idea ; by others again a form of phenomena. but not a characteristic of ultimate reality; by others to he real but with a qualified sort of reality; by others to be an unqualifiedly real character istic of the ultimately real world: and by others to be a reality which exists independently of the timed world of objects. For reasons given in the article on SPACE (q.v.), the most acceptable view is that time has no independent existence, as if it were a kind of vessel whose parts appeared in succession, but that it is real in the sense that the ultimately real world is timed. The ques tion of the infinity of time is to be solved in the same way as that concerning the infinity of space.
In its legal aspect. the meridian of the sun is the generally recognized standard of time, but where persons enter into legal relations expressly with reference to sonic arbitrary system, as that adopted by railroads for their convenience; the courts will apply the standard contemplated by the parties, in case of a controversy. In com puting a period of time from a certain day. the general rule is to exclude the first day and in clude the last day of the count. This rule may be disregarded if it will best effectuate the inten tion of the parties to an agreement. it is gen
erally held that a policy of insurance includes the last day of the period named therein. In many States Sunday, or other dies non, is in cluded in the computation of a number of days if they exceed a week, that is. seven days, but excluded if less than seven days. In some States a dies non is included unless it would be the last day of a period. See DIES NON ; MONTH : DAY.
In music, time is the division of a measure into the 'fractional parts of a whole note. The sign which indicates the character of the subdi vision. and which consequently regttlates the rhythm of the movement, is called the time-sig nature. This is generally a fraction (3, 1,1, etc.) placed after the clef at the beginning of a movement. In the fraction the lower figures represent the kind of notes to be used as tune standards, while the upper figure shows how many of them are to be given in a bar. There are two general classes of time, duple and triple; in the former, the number of beats in a bar is divisible by two: in the latter, by three. Com mon time, so called, is 3 and is represented by the sign C. Compound duple time and com pound triple lime differ only from their originals in that each beat (containing a dotted note or its equivalent) is divisible by three. See RHYTHM; TEMPO.