Picosecond (ps)
One trillionth of a second. Used for very fast electronics.
1 picosecond = 1×10⁻¹² seconds (exactly).
About the picosecond
Pico comes from SI prefix naming and stands for 10 to the power of minus 12, so a picosecond is one trillionth of a second. The BIPM and NIST prefix tables both list it with the symbol p, and the unit is written ps. It is an exact decimal fraction with no historical variation, which is why the factor used here carries no uncertainty.
Picoseconds matter where signals and molecules move too fast for milliseconds or nanoseconds to be useful. Light in a vacuum travels about 0.30 mm in one picosecond, so a millimetre takes roughly 3.3 ps. A 1 THz electromagnetic wave has a cycle time of 1.0 ps, the unit interval of a 10 Gbit/s serial link is 100 ps, and a 3.0 GHz processor cycle lasts about 330 ps. Streak cameras can resolve events on single-digit picosecond timescales, and Wikipedia lists the lifetime of a hydronium ion in water as about 1 ps. A picosecond is one thousandth of a nanosecond.
Sources: Wikipedia: Picosecond; BIPM: SI prefixes; NIST: Metric (SI) prefixes
Picosecond conversion chart
1 picosecond expressed in every other time unit:
| Unit | 1 picosecond |
|---|---|
| Seconds | 1×10⁻¹² |
| Minutes | 1.666666667×10⁻¹⁴ |
| Hours | 2.777777778×10⁻¹⁶ |
| Days | 1.157407407×10⁻¹⁷ |
| Weeks | 1.653439153×10⁻¹⁸ |
| Months | 3.802648621×10⁻¹⁹ |
| Years | 3.168873851×10⁻²⁰ |
| Milliseconds | 1×10⁻⁹ |
| Microseconds | 0.000001 |
| Nanoseconds | 0.001 |
| Decades | 3.168873851×10⁻²¹ |
| Centuries | 3.168873851×10⁻²² |
| Millennia | 3.168873851×10⁻²³ |
| Common Years | 3.170979198×10⁻²⁰ |
| Leap Years | 3.162315321×10⁻²⁰ |
| Julian Years | 3.168808781×10⁻²⁰ |
| Tropical Years | 3.16887654×10⁻²⁰ |
| Sidereal Years | 3.168753579×10⁻²⁰ |
| Synodic Months | 3.919350773×10⁻¹⁹ |
| Sidereal Days | 1.160576284×10⁻¹⁷ |
| Aeons | 3.168873851×10⁻²⁹ |
| Shakes | 0.0001 |
| Fortnights | 8.267195767×10⁻¹⁹ |
| Score | 1.584436925×10⁻²¹ |
| Lustra | 6.337747701×10⁻²¹ |
| Olympiads | 7.922184627×10⁻²¹ |
| Indictions | 2.112582567×10⁻²¹ |
| Jubilees | 6.337747701×10⁻²² |
| Ghati | 6.944444444×10⁻¹⁶ |
| Muhurtas | 3.472222222×10⁻¹⁶ |
| Prahar | 9.259259259×10⁻¹⁷ |
| Shichen | 1.388888889×10⁻¹⁶ |
| Moments | 1.111111111×10⁻¹⁴ |
| Ship's Watches | 6.944444444×10⁻¹⁷ |
| Kin (Maya) | 1.157407407×10⁻¹⁷ |
| Winals | 5.787037037×10⁻¹⁹ |
| Tun (Maya) | 3.215020576×10⁻²⁰ |
| Katuns | 1.607510288×10⁻²¹ |
| Baktuns | 8.03755144×10⁻²³ |
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