∆ Arbitary units, Minutes and Metres

If I create the 'magicon' as an unit of Magical strength, it is both 'arbitrary', and fictitious. Units such as Kilos, or Volts, are arbitrary, but of real things.

People often think that just as meters are 'arbitrary' units of distance, minutes are 'arbitrary' units of time. But are you sure there isn't a tricky and subtle error of logic here?

We pretty much always have to choose an arbitrary unit when we are measuring real things. But we have to make sure we never put the cart before the horse. Ie naming an arbitrary unit, does not constitute a proof that the thing it is supposed to measure exists.

We may detect some force or effect pulling things to the ground, call it what we may, we find we can pick up some arbitrary stone, and compare on a set of scales, a see-saw etc, any other object to our arbitrary unit.

Likewise we could perceive water pressure, the flow of electricity, the strength of magnetism, the brightness of light, or any other detectable feature of the universe – and pick some arbitrary unit of these detectable things, and use it as a standard.

But, I may be inspired by the Harry Potter books and films, and decide to create and name the arbitrary ‘magion’ as a unit of magic. 1 magion being a very weak spell, 7.5 magions being the most powerful spell possible.

The problem here is that kilos, psi, ohms, Gauss, joules, metres, yards or whatever are all arbitrary units, but arbitrary units of things that really exist – while the ‘magicon’ is an arbitrary unit of a thing (magic) which has not really been proven to exist.

So, logically, IF magic is proven to exist in some way, THEN we could say the magicon is a useful arbitrary unit of it, BUT coming up with the idea of a unit called a magicon does not prove magic exists.

It’s not hard to agree length or distance exists, just ask any prisoner who has tried to jam their head through some narrow railings. And so inches, cm, feet, yards or meters are valid units of distance, arbitrary or not.

BUT - imo, we should not confuse the sense of using units like, kilos, psi, feet, yards, or meters with being a proof that time exists.

Logically,

IF time exists THEN the motorised hands rotating on numbered dials indicate its passage.

AND calling some arbitrary amount of rotation a ‘SECOND’ makes sense.

BUT, calling some arbitrary amount of movement, or rotation a ‘SECOND’ is in no way a proof that time exists.

So, unless we can prove the real existence of the past and future, and that ‘time’ exists and flows between them, then I don’t agree that to say time exists, because we have the idea of "seconds", is related to saying a foot or volt, or kilogram exists.

see >>Things don't 'Take Time' to move.