What is Nanosecond?

One nanosecunda is 10 -9 seconds or one billion seconds. This means that in one second there is one billion nanosecond; One billion is one followed by 9 zero. It takes a little more than a nanosecond to travel light with one foot (0.3 meters); Light travels approximately 980 million feet per second (300 million meters per second). In science, measures on nanoseconds will usually be shortened to NS or NSEC. Although it is simply too small to be useful in everyday life, Nanosecond has many important uses in chemistry and physics that both include processes that occur in extremely small periods. For example, the speed that the computer uses to access its memory is commonly expressed in nanoseconds. In this case, lower numbers are better - a computer that has access to its memory in 10 NS IS faster than a computer that has access to its memory of 30 NS. However, both numbers represent very fast computing speeds. Is unlikely,that an individual could recognize 20 NS time difference between the two processes.

Most of the uses of nanosecond are in fields related to science and technology such as electronics, optics and communication. Nanoseconds are often used to measure various aspects of electromagnetic waves such as frequency. In optics, very short nanosecond pulses of light or laser beams are used to collect accurate images of fast -moving phenomenon, such as chemical reactions. When many of these pulses occur in a very short period of time, many images are created that allow scientists to view the phenomenon in their free time.

While nanosecond is a very small rate of time, it is definitely not the smallest. The microsecond is some larger than the nanosecond at 10

-6 seconds. Picoseconds and femtoseconds measure 10

-12

and 10

-15 seconds, and they tend tot similar use. In particular, femoseconds are commonly used in optics to measure pulses used to take pictures in extremely small time frames. None of these units have practical applications for most people, but physics, chemists and technologists often need such small units.

Grace Hopper, a naval officer and a computer scientist of the United States, was known for his lectures on computer science. It is primarily known for the development of the first compiler for the programming language. In her lectures, it was known to distribute the lengths of the wire that were just below 1 foot (0.3 meters) long to show the distance that the light traveled in nanosecond; She did it to explain why satellite communication was not immediate.