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Nanosecond

A nanosecond (ns) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one billionth of a second, that is, of a second, or 10^−9 seconds. The term combines the SI prefix nano- indicating a 1 billionth submultiple of an SI unit (e.g. nanogram, nanometre, etc.) and second, the primary unit of time in the SI. A nanosecond is equal to 1000 picoseconds or microsecond. Time units ranging between 10^−8 and 10^−7 seconds are typically expressed as tens or hundreds of nanoseconds. Time units of this granularity are commonly found in telecommunications, pulsed lasers, and related aspects of electronics. 0.001 nanoseconds – one picosecond 0.5 nanoseconds – the half-life of beryllium-13. 0.96 nanoseconds – 100 Gigabit Ethernet Interpacket gap 1.0 nanosecond – cycle time of an electromagnetic wave with a frequency of 1 GHz (1 hertz). 1.0 nanosecond – electromagnetic wavelength of 1 light-nanosecond. Equivalent to 0.3m radio band. nanoseconds (by definition) – time taken by light to travel 1 foot in a vacuum. nanoseconds (by definition) – time taken by light to travel 1 metre in a vacuum. 8 nanoseconds - typical propagation delay of 74HC series logic chips based on HCMOS technology, commonly used for digital electronics in the mid-1980s. 10 nanoseconds – one "shake", (as in a "shake of a lamb's tail") approximate time of one generation of a nuclear chain reaction with fast neutrons 10 nanoseconds – cycle time for frequency 100 MHz (1 hertz), radio wavelength 3 m (VHF, FM band) 10 nanoseconds – half-life of lithium-12 12 nanoseconds – mean lifetime of a charged K meson 20–40 nanoseconds – time of fusion reaction in a hydrogen bomb 30 nanoseconds – half-life of carbon-21 77 nanoseconds – a sixth (a 60th of a 60th of a 60th of a 60th of a second) 96 nanoseconds – Gigabit Ethernet Interpacket gap 100 nanoseconds – cycle time for frequency 10 MHz, radio wavelength 30 m (shortwave) 299 nanoseconds – half-life of polonium-212 333 nanoseconds – cycle time of highest medium wave radio frequency, 3 MHz 500 nanoseconds

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Picosecond
A picosecond (abbreviated as ps) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to 10−12 or (one trillionth) of a second. That is one trillionth, or one millionth of one millionth of a second, or 0.000 000 000 001 seconds. A picosecond is to one second as one second is to approximately 31,689 years. Multiple technical approaches achieve imaging within single-digit picoseconds: for example, the streak camera or intensified CCD (ICCD) cameras are able to picture the motion of light.
Orders of magnitude (time)
An order of magnitude of time is usually a decimal prefix or decimal order-of-magnitude quantity together with a base unit of time, like a microsecond or a million years. In some cases, the order of magnitude may be implied (usually 1), like a "second" or "year". In other cases, the quantity name implies the base unit, like "century". In most cases, the base unit is seconds or years. Prefixes are not usually used with a base unit of years. Therefore, it is said "a million years" instead of "a mega year".
Millisecond
A millisecond (from milli- and second; symbol: ms) is a unit of time in the International System of Units equal to one thousandth (0.001 or 10−3 or 1/1000) of a second and to 1000 microseconds. A unit of 10 milliseconds may be called a centisecond, and one of 100 milliseconds a decisecond, but these names are rarely used. To help compare orders of magnitude of different times, this page lists times between 10−3 seconds and 100 seconds (1 millisecond and one second). See also times of other orders of magnitude.
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