s

What is a Second?

Time Unit

Definition

The second is the SI base unit of time, defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of radiation from a cesium-133 atom.

Popular Second Conversions

Most common conversions from Seconds

1 s = 1,000 ms Second to Milliseconds 1 s = 1,000,000 μs Second to Microseconds 1 s = 1,000,000,000 ns Second to Nanoseconds 1 s = 0.016667 min Second to Minutes 1 s = 0.0002777778 h Second to Hours 1 s = 0.0000115741 d Second to Days

History

The second was historically defined as 1/86,400 of a day. The modern definition using atomic oscillations was adopted in 1967.

Common Uses

Scientific measurements
Stopwatches and timing
Computing and electronics
Everyday time measurement

Fun Facts

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A 'jiffy' in computing is often 1/60 or 1/100 of a second

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Light travels about 300,000 km in one second

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The average human blink takes 0.1-0.4 seconds

All Second Conversions

Seconds to Milliseconds s → ms Seconds to Microseconds s → μs Seconds to Nanoseconds s → ns Seconds to Minutes s → min Seconds to Hours s → h Seconds to Days s → d Seconds to Weeks s → wk Seconds to Months s → mo Seconds to Years s → yr