Time

The prefixes can be combined with seconds to give:

1 millisecond = \(10^{-3}\) seconds

1 microsecond = \(10^{-6}\) seconds

1 nanosecond = \(10^{-9}\) seconds

1 picosecond = \(10^{-12}\) seconds

Examples

• House flies flap their wings roughly once every 3 milliseconds
• The shutter speed of a camera in good light conditions, that is, the time it takes to snap a photo, is 8 milliseconds
• A strobe light or stroboscopic lamp, commonly called a strobe, is a device used to produce regular flashes of light. They give an impression of slow motion and are regularly used in entertainment venues. The flash takes 1 microsecond.
• There were 2.08 microseconds subtracted from the Earth day after the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake.
• A camera flash illuminates for approximately 1 millisecond (or 1000 microseconds).
• The time for fusion reaction in a hydrogen bomb is 20 to 24 nanoseconds.
• The time for light to travel 1 metre in a vacuum is approximately 3.365 nanoseconds.
• The time to return one result when typing 'NASA' into the Google search engine is approximately 6 nanoseconds.