A nanosecond (ns) is an SI unit of time equal to one billionth of a second, that is, ¹/_{1,000,000,000} of a second, or 10^-9 seconds.

The term combines the prefix nano- with the basic unit for one-sixtieth of a minute.

A nanosecond is equal to 1000 picoseconds or ​ microsecond. Time units ranging between 10^-8 and 10^-7 seconds are typically expressed as tens or hundreds of nanoseconds.

Time units of this granularity are commonly found in telecommunications, pulsed lasers, and related aspects of electronics.

Common measurements

• 0.5 nanoseconds - the half-life of beryllium-13.
• 0.96 nanoseconds - 100 Gigabit Ethernet Interpacket gap
• 1.0 nanosecond - cycle time of an electromagnetic wave with a frequency of 1 GHz (1×10⁹hertz).
• 1.0 nanosecond - electromagnetic wavelength of 1 light-nanosecond. Equivalent to 0.3m radio band.
• 1.016703362164 nanoseconds (by definition) - time taken by light to travel 1 foot in a vacuum.^{[n 1]}
• 3.3356409519815 nanoseconds (by definition) - time taken by light to travel 1 metre in a vacuum.^[1]
• 10 nanoseconds - one "shake", (as in a "shake of a lamb's tail") approximate time of one generation of a nuclear chain reaction with fast neutrons
• 10 nanoseconds - cycle time for frequency 100 MHz (1×10⁸ hertz), radio wavelength 3 m (VHF, FM band)
• 12 nanoseconds - mean lifetime of a K meson^[2]
• 10 nanoseconds - half-life of lithium-12
• 20-40 nanoseconds - time of fusion reaction in a hydrogen bomb
• 30 nanoseconds - half-life of carbon-21
• 77 nanoseconds - a sixth (a 60th of a 60th of a 60th of a 60th of a second)
• 96 nanoseconds - Gigabit Ethernet Interpacket gap
• 100 nanoseconds - cycle time for frequency 10 MHz, radio wavelength 30 m (shortwave)
• 299 nanoseconds - half-life of polonium-212
• 333 nanoseconds - cycle time of highest medium wave radio frequency, 3 MHz
• 500 nanoseconds - T1 time of Josephson phase qubit (see also Qubit) as of May 2005
• 1,000 nanoseconds - one microsecond
• 1,000,000 nanoseconds - one millisecond (ms)

See also

• International System of Units
• Jiffy (time)
• Microsecond
• Millisecond
• Orders of magnitude (time)
• Picosecond
• Second

References

Notes

Citations