Do we know how many meters long one second is?

[student34]

TL;DR

Do we know how many meters long one second is?

In other words, how many meters long is the world line of a particle at rest for 1 second?

 

[PeroK]

Summary:: Do we know how many meters long one second is?

In other words, how many meters long is the world line of a particle at rest for 1 second?

The conversion factor from time to length is the speed of light. For an object at rest in some IRF for proper/coordinate time $t$, the worldline has length $ct$.

If $t = 1s$, then the length of the worldline is approximately $3 \times 10^{8} \ m$.

 

[robphy]

Possibly illuminating:

 

[student34]

I guess this means that we pass through time at the speed of light. Interesting.

 

[PeterDonis]

I guess this means that we pass through time at the speed of light.

While there is a sense in which this is true, it is a very limited sense and you can't really draw any useful inferences from it. We have had a number of previous PF threads dealing with the confusion caused by taking this statement too far.