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A femtosecond is the SI unit of time equal to 10-15 of a second. That is one quadrillionth, or one millionth of one billionth of a second. For context, a femtosecond is to a second, what a second is to about 31.7 million years.

The word femtosecond is formed by the SI prefix femto and the SI unit second. Its symbol is fs.

A femtosecond is equal to 1000 attoseconds, or 1/1000 picosecond. Because the next higher SI unit is 1000 times larger, times of 10-14 and 10-13 seconds are typically expressed as tens or hundreds of femtoseconds.

  • Shorter times
  • Typical time steps for molecular dynamics simulations are on the order of 1 fs.
  • The waves of visible light oscillate with a period (reciprocal frequency) of about 20 femtoseconds [lambda/c = (600x10^-8)/(3x10^8) = 20x10^-15]. The precise period depends on the energy of the photons, which determines their color. (See wave-particle duality) This time can be calculated by dividing the wavelength of the light by the speed of light (approximately 3 x 108 m/s) to determine the time required for light to travel that distance.
    • 13 fs -- cycle time for 390 nanometre light, at the transition between violet visible light and ultraviolet
    • 25.7 fs -- cycle time for 770 nanometre light, at the transition between red visible light and near-infrared
  • 200 fs -- the swiftest chemical reactions, such as the reaction of pigments in an eye to light
  • 300 fs -- the duration of a vibration of the atoms in an iodine molecule
  • Longer times
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Related Questions

How many seconds in a femto second?

There are 10-15 seconds in a femtosecond.


What is femtosecond?

10-15 seconds.


How many zeros are in a femtosecond?

I could write 1 femtosecond as "1 femtosecond" : not a zero in sight. or as 0.000001 nanoseconds (6 zeros) or .000001 nanoseconds (5 zeros) 1 fs = 10-15 seconds so there are 14 0s between the decimal point and the 1.


What is the definition of a femtosecond?

The definition of the word femtosecond is basically it's a SI united of time equal to 10 to 15 seconds. It is approximately equal to one quadrillionth of a second.


How many picoseconds are in a femtosecond?

1000


In Hertz what is a femtosecond?

A femtosecond is a unit of time equal to one quadrillionth of a second, or 10^-15 seconds. It is commonly used in ultrafast laser applications and studies of very fast processes such as chemical reactions or electron movements.


Is terasecond the smallest seconds?

No, a terasecond is not the smallest unit of time. In fact, a terasecond is equal to (10^{12}) seconds, which is quite large in comparison to smaller units like the picosecond ((10^{-12}) seconds) and the femtosecond ((10^{-15}) seconds). Therefore, there are many smaller units of time than a terasecond.


How long is a femtosecond?

A femtosecond is one billionth of one millionth of a second.


Is zero and a half seconds possible?

That would be 0.5 seconds or half a second Seconds have been split up into very samll packages, down to the femtosecond range. This is one millionth of a nanosecond or 1x10-15 of a second


What is the abbreviation for femtosecond?

FS


What is less than a femtosecond?

Attosecond


What is the smallest units of time?

the femtosecond