Nanosecond

Template:Short description Template:Infobox unit Template:Wiktionary A nanosecond (ns) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one billionth of a second, that is, Template:Sfrac of a second, or Template:Val 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 to one second, as one second is to approximately 31.69 years.

A nanosecond is equal to 1000 picoseconds or Template:Sfrac microsecond. Time units ranging between 10Template:Sup and 10Template:Sup 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.

Common measurements

• 0.001 nanoseconds – one picosecond
• 0.96 nanoseconds – 100 Gigabit Ethernet Interpacket gap
• 96 nanoseconds – Gigabit Ethernet Interpacket gap
• 1.0 nanosecond – cycle time of an electromagnetic wave with a frequency of 1 GHz (Template:Val).
• 1.0 nanosecond – electromagnetic wavelength of 1 light-nanosecond. Equivalent to 0.3 m radio band.
• 1 nanosecond – time precision in Go<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Template:Val nanoseconds (by definition) – time taken by light to travel 1 foot in vacuum.<ref group="n">By definition of the "foot" as exactly 1/3 yards, and of the international yard as "exactly 0.9144 metres", and of the metre (SI unit) defined by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures as the "length of the path traveled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/Template:Val of a second". The time taken by light to travel 1 foot in vacuum is therefore (1/299792458) × (0.9144/3) seconds, or Template:Val nanoseconds.</ref>
• Template:Val nanoseconds (by definition) – time taken by light to travel 1 metre in vacuum.<ref name="BIPM21">

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• 8 nanoseconds – typical propagation delay of 74HC series logic chips based on HCMOS technology, commonly used for digital electronics in the mid-1980s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 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 (Template:Val), radio wavelength 3 m (VHF, FM band)
• 10 nanoseconds – half-life of lithium-12
• 12 nanoseconds – mean lifetime of a charged K meson<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 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)
• 100 nanoseconds – cycle time for frequency 10 MHz, radio wavelength 30 m (shortwave)
• 294.4 nanoseconds – half-life of polonium-212Template:NUBASE2020
• 333 nanoseconds – cycle time of highest medium wave radio frequency, 3 MHz
• 500 nanoseconds – T1 time of Josephson phase qubit (see also Qubit) as of May 2005
• Template:Val nanoseconds – one microsecond

See also

• International System of Units
• Jiffy (time)
• Microsecond
• Millisecond
• Orders of magnitude (time)
• Picosecond
• Second

References

Notes

Citations

External links

• Visual representation of a nanosecond Grace Hopper explains the nanosecond