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Time words

Here are some of the words used for units of time.



Chronon
One-billionth of a trillionth of a second (the time a photon would take to cross the width of one elecctron at the speed of light)

Femtosecond
          0.000000000000001 of a second

Picosecond
          0.000000000001 (ont-trillionth ) of a second

Nanosecond
          0.000000001 (one-billionth) of a second

Microsecond
          0.000001 (one-millionth) of a second)

Millisecond
0.001 (one-thousandth) of a second;  the blink of an eye takes 50-80 milliseconds

Centisecond
          0.01 (one-hundredth) of a second

Second
          1/60 of a minute

Minute
          60 seconds

Hour
          60 minutes

Day
          Sunrise to sunrise,  or sunset to sunset, or midnight to midnight ; 24   
          hours

Week
Seven days; In shakespeare’s time, it was also called a sennight, or seven nights

Fortnight
          Two weeks  (from the Old English for 14 nighs)

Month
Full moon to full moon; 1/12 of a year; 4 weeks, or 28,29,30 or 31 days, depending on month

Bimester
          Two months

Trimester
          A period of three months

Semester
          Six months

Year
          365 ¼ days, 52 weeks, or 12 months

Solar day
The time it takes for a place on the Earth directly facing the Sun to make one revolution and return to the same position (about 23 hours 56 minutes)

Solar year
The time it takes for the Earth to make a complete revolution around the sun, equal to 365.24219 solar days or 365 days, 5 hours 48 minutes, 45.51 seconds; also called a tropical year or astronomical year

Leap year
          366 days

Decade
          10years; also called a decennium

Century
          100 years

Millennium
          1,000 years; also called a chiliad

Bimillennium
          2,000 years

Era
          A period of time mesured from some important event

Aeon or eon
 A long period of time, usually thousands of years; in geology and
 astronomy it is one billion years

Epoch
          A geological era or very long period of time
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