linear time
Past to future
Linear time describes the conception of time as a straight line moving from past through present to future, with events occurring in a fixed, irreversible sequence.
This contrasts with cyclical time, where events repeat in patterns or loops.
In computer science, linear time (often written O(n)) describes an algorithm whose running time increases proportionally with the size of its input—double the data, double the processing time.
The search runs in linear time.
- sequenceOrdered succession of elements
- irreversibilityState of being permanent
- point of no returnThreshold beyond which reversal impossible
- calendarDate-tracking system
- past present futureTime's three domains
one way street · no turning back · entropy · arrow · chronology · succession · determinism · periodization · ticking clock · thermodynamics · forward march · temporality · progression · straight line · duration · causality · teleology · runtime
- timesecond, minute, hour, day, seconds
- temporalityduration, past, present, future, now
- algorithmsalgorithm, algorithms, DFS, binary search, A star
- narrative timeflashback, flashforward, foreshadowing, pacing, chronology
- literary timeflashback, foreshadowing, pacing
- calendarscalendar, calendar day, calendar year, calendar month, lunar calendar
linear timetimelessness
Freedom from temporal decay
simultaneity · atemporal · dream time · dreamtime · spacetime
time, timeline, linear, nonlinear, linearity, curvilinear, rectilinear, collinear, linearly