Convert Hour (h) to Shake (shake) instantly.
About these units
Hour (h)
An hour, defined as 60 minutes or 3,600 seconds, is one of the most universally recognized time units. It emerged from ancient Egyptian timekeeping, where daylight was divided into 12 equal segments, a tradition that eventually influenced Greek and Roman clocks. The hour structures human activities: work schedules, travel planning, academic periods, medical dosing intervals, and astronomical observations. Its widespread adoption across cultures demonstrates the human tendency to organize life into consistent, predictable cycles. Even in scientific contexts where seconds dominate, the hour persists in fields like meteorology, orbital mechanics (e.g., solar time), and industrial processes. It bridges the gap between precise atomic time and everyday human experience.
Shake (shake)
A shake is a playful but scientifically important unit equal to 10 nanoseconds. It originated in the Manhattan Project, where physicists needed a convenient term for very short intervals in nuclear chain reactions. A nuclear fission event occurs on the order of a few shakes, making the unit ideal for modeling neutron capture, reaction propagation, and weapon physics. Today, the shake appears in nuclear engineering literature, plasma physics, and astrophysics—any field involving extremely rapid events. Despite its whimsical name, the shake represents a meaningful scientific compromise: short enough for nuclear events, yet still relatable and easy to calculate.