An article in the June 2007 issue of Discover magazine reports on the shortest time intervals ever measured. Ultraviolet laser pulses tracking the quantum leaps of electrons within atoms yield events lasting 100 attoseconds (100 quintillionths of a second).
To put that timespan in perspective, 100 attoseconds is to one second as one second is to 300 million years.
Updated 2009: "In ratio, one attosecond is to one second what one second is to the age of the universe."
Very cool.
ReplyDeleteNamed for Richard Attenborough?
ReplyDeleteI didn't know, so I had to look it up - "Atto- is derived from the Danish word for "eighteen" (because it signifies 10-18)." [that's 10 to the 18th power, but I can't superscript in the comments...]
ReplyDelete