Kilohertz to Terahertz (kHz to THz)

1 kilohertz equals 1×10⁻⁹ terahertz exactly.

How to convert kilohertz to terahertz

To convert kilohertz to terahertz, multiply the number of kilohertz by 1×10⁻⁹. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply terahertz by 1,000,000,000.

terahertz = kilohertz × 1×10⁻⁹

Example: 10 kilohertz = 1×10⁻⁸ terahertz.

About these units

Kilohertz (kHz)

Metric (SI)Current unit

1,000 hertz. AM radio stations are tuned in kilohertz and audio is sampled at 44.1 kHz.

Older radio operators called it the kilocycle. Before the CGPM adopted the hertz in 1960, thousands of cycles per second were written kc/s, and the popular press only switched to kilohertz in the late 1960s. The name changed, but the number on the dial did not.

A kilohertz is 1,000 hertz, a range that covers audible sound and medium-wave radio. Medium wave runs from 531 to 1602 kHz in Europe, Asia and Africa with 9 kHz channel spacing, and from 530 to 1700 kHz in the Americas with 10 kHz spacing. Audio engineers use it for sampling rates: 44.1 kHz comes from the Compact Disc, which Sony used from 1979, and the rate was originally chosen so digital audio could fit on video tape for both PAL and NTSC. Because sampling must exceed twice the highest frequency, 44.1 kHz comfortably covers hearing up to 20 kHz.

1 kilohertz = 1,000 hertz (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Medium wave; Wikipedia: 44,100 Hz; Wikipedia: Kilohertz

Terahertz (THz)

Metric (SI)Current unit

10¹² hertz. Infrared radiation lies at tens of terahertz.

A trillion cycles each second is the scale where electronics meets optics. The terahertz, 10 to the power 12 hertz, takes its base unit from Heinrich Hertz, the physicist who gave conclusive proof that electromagnetic waves exist. The IEC established the name hertz in 1935, and the CGPM adopted it in 1960, replacing cycles per second and its multiples such as kilocycles and megacycles.

Radiation between 0.1 and 10 THz, with wavelengths from 3 mm down to 30 micrometres, lies between microwaves and far infrared. For years this stretch was called the terahertz gap, because practical sources and detectors were hard to build. Today it is used for security screening, spectroscopy and imaging, and has been proposed for fast wireless links. Infrared light spans roughly tens of terahertz, and visible light is about 400 to 790 THz.

1 terahertz = 1,000,000,000,000 hertz (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Hertz; Wikipedia: Terahertz radiation; Wikipedia: Orders of magnitude (frequency)

Related conversions

See all frequency units.