Maybe this isn't so trivial, but how do you define time and distance?

Question

I'm not interested in dictionary definitions. I want to know some way of perceiving the essence of these things without any self-referential terms. It's not as easy as you might think.

There is an ulterior motive for my question, which you can find out if you check back here in a few hours. (That motive would really be best placed in poles and surveys, but this is kind of like that.)

Answer 1

I recall my previous statement for the sake of clarity

I hold that you don't define time and distance without using self-referential terms.  

Time is a change in now

Distance is a change in here

yet, both of these definitions, as clear and breif as they may be use self-referential terminology to define them, because they are man-made concepts and man-made tools, and any man/woman who defines them are using self-referential terms

Answer 2

Time is what you measure with a clock and distance is what you measure with a stick.

Answer 3

I think Brant nailed it on the head

Answer 4

My definition: Time is what keeps everything from happening at once, and distance is what keeps things from all being at the same spot, as they were at the beginning of time.

Philosophically, this is certainly not a trivial subject.  Philosophers have argued for thousands of years about the definition of time.  My favorite quote on the subject is from St. Augustine: "What is time?  So long as no one asks me, I know what it is.  If someone asks me, I cannot explain it."

Nowadays, most philosophers agree that the only good definition of time is that it is a human perception that things happen in some order, and that some things happen more quickly than others.  Similarly, the definition of distance is the perception that some things are farther away than others. The definition of farther and nearer relates back to time.   It takes time to get from one point to another in space, and the distance is measured by how long it takes to get there.

Of course, for practical purposes, we measure time with clocks, and distance with sticks, and we synchronize our clocks and use standardized markings on our sticks.  Otherwise we would never be able to go anywhere, build anything, or get anything at all done.