A yoctosecond is apparently the shortest "measurable" span of time there is.

It is 10(24), (10 and 24 zeros, or a quadrillionth) of a second.

I have heard that there are more than twice as many yoctoseconds in a single second, then there have been seconds since the "Big Bang", 15 billion years. I have tried to work this out, and it seems to be true, can anyone prove or disprove this fact?

Cheers, Matt

1.5*10^15 yrs x 3.15* 10^7 sec/yr = 4.7 * 10^17 sec since the big space kablooie.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_time

Interesting:

One Planck time should be the smallest measurable unit of time, according to quantum mechanics. But, according to news reports, analyses of Hubble Space Telescope Deep Field images in 2003 brought up a discrepancy. Images should have been blurry at very far distances, but the news articles stated that they weren't, challenging the theory that Planck time is indeed the smallest measurable unit of time in the universe.[4][5][6]

Shouldn't that be 1.5E10 yrs?

Planck time is apparently only a theoretical unit of time, it is the time it takes a photon of light to travel the shortest possible distance. Nothing we (currently) have can measure that.

The smallest measurable unit of time is a yoctosecond (YS), an electron rotates around an atom roughly once every 2 YS's.

Mike, thanks for the equation, but my Math is a bit ropey (blushes), is that more than a quadrillion (in the long scale) or a septillion (in the short scale)?

(American notation)
billion: 1,000,000,000
trillion: 1,000,000,000,000
quadr: 1,000,000,000,000,000

170,000,000,000,000,000 seconds. Looks right.


Yup. I must have been working in dog years.

1,700,000,000,000 seconds, 1.7 quadloos.

I've used scientific notation for so long I have to recount the zeroes every time.

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Thanks again Mike.

So there have been 1,700,000,000,000 seconds since the big bang, and there are; 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10-24)Yoctoseconds in a second.

So the original question, if Ive got it right, yes there are many many more Yoctoseconds in a second than there have ever been seconds since time (allegedly) began.

BTW, the Yoctosecond is also about the attention span of my kids as well!

welcome to the club!

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