Time in Fundamental Physics

Abstract: The first three sections of this article contain a broad brush summary of the profound changes in the notion of time in fundamental physics that were brought about by three revolutions: the foundations of mechanics distilled by Newton in his Principia, the discovery of special relativity by Einstein and its reformulation by Minkowski, and, finally, the fusion of geometry and gravity in Einstein's general relativity. The fourth section discusses two aspects of yet another deep revision that waits in the wings as we attempt to unify general relativity with quantum physics.