AnthonyC comments on Feynman Paths - Less Wrong

14 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 17 April 2008 06:32AM

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Comment author: AnthonyC 06 April 2011 03:45:42PM 0 points [-]

"How fast does the little arrow rotate? As fast as the photon's wavelength - that's what a photon's wavelength is. The wavelength of yellow light is ~570 nanometers: If yellow light travels an extra 570 nanometers, its little arrow will turn all the way around and end up back where it started."

Which would seem to make it a ruler as well as a clock. But then, since general relativity made time an axis like space, I have sometimes wondered why we don't measure time in meters or distance in seconds.

Comment author: wnoise 06 April 2011 07:01:07PM 5 points [-]
Comment author: Sniffnoy 06 April 2011 10:02:43PM 3 points [-]

To expand on that point, we also measure energy in hertz, and temperatures in Joules, and ultimately everything in pure numbers. :)

Comment author: Dojan 13 December 2011 02:53:41AM 2 points [-]

We do.

The speed of light is used to define not only the lightyear, but also the common metre.