The current expansion rate of the universe (Hubble constant) is considered (Abbot et al. 2017) to be 7x10⁴ m/sec per 3.086x10²² metres.

This means that a 1% increase (ie 3.086x10²⁰m) would take place in 0.441x10¹⁸ seconds.

If we define a new unit of time (the toc) to be the time taken for the universe to expand by 1%, then at the present 1 toc is equal to 0.441x10¹⁸ seconds. So a more manageable unit would be the tic given by 1 tic = 10^-18 toc. So we now have a new unit of time, the tic, which at the present time is about 0.441 seconds.

However, since the definition of the toc is based on the time taken for the universe to expand by 1%, a number of important features arise:

• The age of the universe (in tocs) is infinite. There was no "Big Bang"
• The rate of expansion of the universe is, and has always been, 1% per toc (by definition)

The idea behind this new unit of time is that in an expanding universe it seems to be unreasonable to assume that the time-development of physical processes should proceed at a rate defined by our definition of time at our particular moment in the history of the universe. Why should the time-development of physical processes be independent of the size of the universe of which they are a part?

To take a simple example, why should the frequency of light emitted by some atomic phenomena be independent of the expanding universe in which the phenomena is taking place? If the universe as a whole is expanding, why does this not affect the fundamental laws of the physics taking place within that universe?

A re-statement of current physical and cosmological theories based on this new unit of time, the toc, will resolve at a stroke the current problems of the origin of the universe and the rate of its expansion.

The definition of the frequency of light emitted, based on cycles per toc instead of cycles per second, will have a major effect on the use of red shift to measure distances based on the frequency of light emitted in very distant epochs.

The use of our current unit of time (the second) based on the unperturbed ground-state hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium 133 atom at our current moment in the history of the universe seems odd for two reasons:

1. There is no fundamental reason to assume that the behaviour of this atom has been constant throughout the life of a universe whose size is not constant
2. During the early history of the universe current theories accept that such atoms did not exist

We must remember that the original definition of second was based on the time it took a particular small planet to orbit a particular star in a particular galaxy of relatively recent formation, and the new definition was adopted because it was found that the original definition produced a time interval that was not constant compared with the more fundamental interval defined by the caesium 133 atom at the present moment in the life of the universe.

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Recent scientific articles are beginning to question the concept of time. For example:

• Controversial-new-theory-of-gravity-rules-out-need-for-dark-matter
• New 3D cosmic map raises questions over future of universe
• Also see my latest ideas about the Universe on We need to rethink all our ideas about the Universe.

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