Convert Nanosecond (ns) to Femtosecond (fs) instantly.
About these units
Nanosecond (ns)
A nanosecond is one billionth of a second (10⁻⁹ s), a timescale critical for modern digital circuits, high-frequency communication, and quantum experimentation. Light travels only about 30 centimeters in a nanosecond—making ns measurements essential in time-of-flight sensors, LIDAR systems, and high-speed oscilloscopes. Computer processor operations often occur at nanosecond intervals; modern CPUs with gigahertz clock speeds execute billions of cycles per second. In memory access and cache latency profiling, nanoseconds provide unparalleled insight into system performance. At this scale, electrical signals behave differently, revealing the importance of impedance, propagation delay, and electromagnetic behavior in modern electronics.
Femtosecond (fs)
A femtosecond equals 10⁻¹⁵ seconds, a staggering scale where fundamental molecular motions occur. Chemical bonds vibrate, break, and rearrange on femtosecond timescales. Ultrafast spectroscopy—pioneered by Ahmed Zewail, who won the Nobel Prize for this work—uses femtosecond laser pulses to "freeze" molecular reactions and observe them in real time. Femtosecond lasers allow extraordinary precision in surgery and microfabrication, producing minimal heat diffusion and ultraclean cuts. At this scale, time ceases to be a continuous blur and becomes granular in terms of molecular motion, giving rise to the field of femtochemistry and revolutionizing our understanding of reaction dynamics.