Search: jiffy
Why: Kylie from 2Pz posted this, which I recognize as bein from "Learn Something New Every Day":
(except the original didn't say that thing at the bottom:)
and this retraction, maybe from a site called "Don't Believe Everything You Read, Darlings":
Anyway, when I went to investigate, I saw this:
Answer: It means different things in different circles!
- For most - 0.01 second
- In computer engineering - Length of time between successive microprocessor clock cycles
This interval gets shorter as clock speeds increase. In a computer with a 2- gigahertz microprocessor, the jiffy is 0.5 nanosecond or 5 x 10 -10 second. In a machine with a 3-gigahertz microprocessor, the jiffy is 0.333 nanosecond (3.33 x 10 -10 second).
- Length of time required for one alternating-current utility power cycle; in US and Canada - 1/60 second, in other countries - 1/50 second
- 0.001 seconds
- 1 nanosecond / Length of time it takes a beam of light to require 1 foot
- 3.3357 x 10 -11 seconds / Length of time it takes light to travel 1 cm
- 3.3357 x 10 -24 second / Length of time it takes a light particle to travel from one side of a nucleon to the other
Source: WhatIs.com
It is thought to have first been used in England during the 1700s, and referred to a brief but indeterminate time. In some contexts, it is used as a put-off: the expression in a jiffy can mean "maybe now, maybe never."
