Picoseconds to Years (ps to yr)
1 picosecond equals 3.168873851×10⁻²⁰ years (rounded).
How to convert picoseconds to years
To convert picoseconds to years, multiply the number of picoseconds by 3.168873851×10⁻²⁰. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply years by 3.1556952×10¹⁹.
years = picoseconds × 3.168873851×10⁻²⁰
Example: 10 picoseconds = 3.168873851×10⁻¹⁹ years.
Months and years are not constant. This site uses the average Gregorian year of 365.2425 days, so one 'year' converts to 365.2425 days, not 365; use 'common year' for exactly 365 days.
About these units
Picosecond (ps)
One trillionth of a second. Used for very fast electronics.
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.
1 picosecond = 1×10⁻¹² seconds (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Picosecond; BIPM: SI prefixes; NIST: Metric (SI) prefixes
Year (yr)
The average Gregorian calendar year of 365.2425 days (31,556,952 seconds). A common year has 365 days and a leap year 366.
A year is the Earth's trip around the Sun, but there are several versions. The tropical year, which tracks the seasons, is about 365.2422 days. The sidereal year, measured against the stars, is about 365.2564 days, roughly 20 minutes longer, because the Earth's axis precesses. Calendars must squeeze these into whole days, which is the origin of leap years. English year descends from Old English gear, while Latin annus, the source of annual, comes from a different root.
The Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII's bull of 24 February 1582, fixed the problem of Julian drift that had moved the March equinox away from 21 March and upset the date of Easter. Ten days were skipped, so Thursday 4 October was followed by Friday 15 October. Its rule of skipping leap days in century years not divisible by 400 gives a mean year of 365.2425 days, the value this site uses for the year. Britain and its empire switched in 1752 and Russia in 1918. Scientists write the year as a, with the Julian year fixed at 31,557,600 seconds.
1 year = 31,556,952 seconds (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Year; Wikipedia: Gregorian calendar
Related conversions
- Years to picoseconds (reverse)
- Picoseconds to seconds
- Picoseconds to minutes
- Picoseconds to hours
- Picoseconds to days
- Picoseconds to weeks
- Picoseconds to months
- Seconds to years
- Minutes to years
- Hours to years
- Days to years
- Weeks to years
- Months to years
- Milliseconds to years
- Microseconds to years
- Nanoseconds to years
- Decades to years
- Centuries to years
- Millennia to years
See all time units.