What is Attosecond?
An '''attosecond''' ('''as''') is a very short period of [[time]].<ref>Website of the BIPM (Bureau International des Poids et Mesures) http://www.bipm.org/en/si/si_brochure/chapter3/prefixes.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607000414/http://www.bipm.org/en/si/si_brochure/chapter3/prefixes.html |date=2007-06-07 }}</ref> It is equal to one quintillionth of a [[second]] (or 0.000000000000000001&nbsp;seconds). It can also be written as '''10<sup>−18</sup> seconds'''. Because it can be hard to think about how short this period of time is, on this page is a list of descriptions of periods of time longer than 1 attosecond, but shorter than one [[femtosecond]] (which is 10<sup>−15</sup> seconds). This should help when thinking about periods of time that have different [[order of magnitude|orders of magnitude]]. * 1 attosecond: It takes 1 attosecond for light to travel the length of three [[hydrogen|hydrogen atoms]]. * 1 attosecond: It takes 1 attosecond for an [[atomic nucleus]] to react when another particle hits it. * 150 attoseconds: It takes 150 attoseconds for an [[electron]] to circle the nucleus of an [[atom]]. * 320 attoseconds: It takes about 300 attoseconds for an [[electron]] to jump from one atom to another. == Related pages == * [[1 E-25 s|Click this link for times shorter than one attosecond.]] * [[Zetasecond| Zetosecond (1/1000 of a attosecond)]] == Notes == {{reflist}} {{Ordersofmagnitudeseconds}} {{math-stub}} [[Category:Units of time]] [[Category:Orders of magnitude]]