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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 smaller than a femtosecond?

Smaller than a femtosecond (10^-15 seconds) are time intervals measured in attoseconds (10^-18 seconds) and zeptoseconds (10^-21 seconds). These units are often used in fields like ultrafast physics to study rapid processes such as electron movements in atoms and molecular interactions. While femtoseconds are commonly associated with light wave cycles, attoseconds allow scientists to observe phenomena at even shorter timescales.


What is the abbreviation for femtosecond?

FS


What is less than a femtosecond?

Attosecond