Similarly, if we continue to use local time, we get into trouble, when we go to high velocities, with our simple concept of velocity, which may be defined in terms of a combination of space and time concepts. The concept of local time thus loses its value and becomes merely a blunted tool when we try to carry it out of its original range. But the concept of extended time, with which we have to replace local time, is a complicated thing, to which we have not yet got ourselves accustomed; it may perhaps prove to be so complicated as never to be a very useful intuitive tool of thought. All these considerations about time have been concerned only with intervals of such an order of magnitude that they are readily experienced by any individual. If we have to deal with intervals either very long or very short, it is obvious that our entire procedure changes, and consequently the concept changes. In extending the time concept to eras remote in the past, for example, we try as always, to choose the new operations so as to piece on continuously with those of ordinary experience. A precise analysis of the change in the concept of time when applied to the remote past does not seem to be of great significance for our present physical purpose, and will not be attempted here. It is perhaps worth while to point out, however, that all our other concepts, as well as that of time, must be modified when applied to the remote past; an example is the concept of truth. It is amusing to try to discover what is the precise meaning in terms of operations of a statement like this: "It is true that Darius the Mede arose at 6:30 on the morning of his thirtieth birthday." Of more concern for our physical purposes is the modification which the time concept undergoes when applied to very short intervals. What is the meaning, for example, in saying that an electron when colliding with a certain atom is brought to rest in 10^-18 seconds? Here I believe the situation is very similar to that with regard to short lengths. The nature of the physical operations changes entirely, and as before, comes to contain operations of an electrical and optical character. The immediate significance of 10^-18 is that of a number, which when substituted into the equations of optics, produces agreement with observed facts. Thus short intervals of time acquire meaning only in connection with the equations of electrodynamics, whose validity is doubtful and which can be tested only in terms of the space and time coordinates which enter them. Here is the same vicious circle that we found before. Once again we find that concepts fuse together on the limit of the experimentally attainable.