What comes after nanoseconds?
Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)
Posts: 23,514
'Thought I'd share this anecdote from the class I'm volunteering with, using the ActivityBot. The students are using a pause function in their programs. I mentioned that the argument is the time in milliseconds. Asked one of the students:
"Isn't a millisecond a millionth of a second?"
"Oh, that makes sense."
"No idea."
"A zerosecond?"
For all practical purposes, I suppose that's as good as any!
BTW, if you ever get a chance to teach or mentor a robotics lab -- or any subject for that matter -- take it! My experience has been totally frenetic, like herding cats, and the hour seems to pass in a "zerosecond." It's one of the most fun, rewarding things I've ever had the privilege of doing. The kids are totally into it and just seem to "get" the subject matter.
I should also add that Parallax's excellent Learn curriculum makes my job a whole lot easier than it might otherwise have been. Kudos to Andy, Steph, and crew!
-Phil
"Isn't a millisecond a millionth of a second?"
"No, it's a thousandth. A millionth is a microsecond."
"Oh, that makes sense."
"Do you know what a billionth of a second is called?"
"No idea."
"It's called a nanosecond. 'Any idea what comes next?"
"A zerosecond?"
For all practical purposes, I suppose that's as good as any!
BTW, if you ever get a chance to teach or mentor a robotics lab -- or any subject for that matter -- take it! My experience has been totally frenetic, like herding cats, and the hour seems to pass in a "zerosecond." It's one of the most fun, rewarding things I've ever had the privilege of doing. The kids are totally into it and just seem to "get" the subject matter.
I should also add that Parallax's excellent Learn curriculum makes my job a whole lot easier than it might otherwise have been. Kudos to Andy, Steph, and crew!
-Phil
Comments
After two months working through school bureaucracy, I'm about to start a programming workshop at a nearby high school. I have 6 students signed up. I did something similar last year and really enjoyed it.
A nanothird?
I agree.
And among many things I have learned is this: there is no such thing as building a robot: there is only rebuilding and rebuilding and rebuilding a robot.
@SRLM: I sure which we could get some resolution to that problem.
In my primary education there was a lot more offered than I typically see now. Some exceptions are out there, but they really aren't the norm. Even though I lived in a small town, kind of redneck --well, let's just say solid redneck, the school was able to offer radio, computers, art, etc... Outside people did participate back then. Most of the time, the teacher for the course would just invite them in and for a while they were just in the class with us, which was a huge benefit. Nothing bad ever happened. Sometimes a thing might have been said that you would expect an ordinary person to say outside the classroom and the worst that came of it was a couple of snickers as everybody just powered through that knowing the intent was good. No real worries.
Fast forward to current time. I got invited to my kids school a time or two, and it worked as I remembered. This was in the 90's. Soon after that, it became harder, and by mid 00's, pretty much impossible without a lot of hassles.
The thing is, we really need that involvement. While it gets harder to be involved, so many schools are diluting down the education at the same time, leaving kids to clubs and after school type activities. People of means can deal with this, but there are a lot of people who can't, and the poor kids or once with rough family scenarios get left out. That's too many kids.
Anyway, probably said enough. Glad you powered through and get to contribute. It is a lot of fun. I particularly like when they cross over from interested to budding programmer. Their questions change a little and you can see them starting to take off! And it's like a switch flips. Not a week later, they've got little piles of code that is suddenly challenging to step through and you know some real good was done.
Of course, more nanoseconds.
BTW, I lost track of the Forumista who was a teacher in a horrible school district & situation who dreaded going to school each day. IIRC, he ended up quitting and heading into a much more promising career. Have we heard any follow up?
pico = 10e-12
femto = 10e-15
Was that Scope?
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/143524-A-Mind-Is-A-Terrible-Thing-To-Waste
He last posted in Feb, but I saw him lurkin' about earlier this month.
(sent him a PM)
According to big-bang theory, the very next instant of time after any measure of time is 5.391 06(32)
I've often wondered: if space and time are granulated, then what is the background against which such granulations are measured?
-Phil
An oscillator with a period of one zerosecond would have frequency that would make my head hertz.
While timing is everything in microcontrollers, excessive speed might not be absolutely necessary. I do fine with micro-seconds for my projects.
If that's true, I think my part in the grand scheme of things is the Blue Screen! :-)
Amanda
Excedrin Headache #∞, Quantum Mechanics!
Well either the Blue Screen will get you or it is global warming... either way we are here until we are not here. so there you go... in a nanosecond.
I tend to agree with Amanda .. Quantum mechanics gives me headaches. How does one ever get a name like Plank?
Unless you are being an idiot in England, then you might be called a plank.
The plank thing causes a chuckle but I always thought that his name "Max Planck" made it even better, I mean, he is the biggest possible plank!
And then we have his full name "Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck". That has got style.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_Nano#Timeline_of_compact_iPod_models
Perhaps one frosty night your future parents get board?
Yes but quantum mechanics comes in to play long before you get to such small scales.The classic example is the interference of visible light, 600 odd nm, when passing through slits. It seems that even if the energy input is so low that only one photon can be in flight at a time the interference pattern still emerges.
@
"So what you're saying essentially is, is that along with infinite space which extends beyond perpetual bigness there's also infinite smallness?"
...So going the other way wouldn't a nanominute technically come after a nanosecond? <smirk>
No, I think you're thinking about a New York minute.