Convert Shake (shake) to Picosecond (ps) instantly.
About these units
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.
Picosecond (ps)
A picosecond equals 10⁻¹² seconds. At this timescale, even light travels only about 0.3 millimeters, making picoseconds vital in advanced optics, ultrafast laser systems, and femtochemistry. Picosecond lasers enable precision cutting in medical devices, microfabrication, and semiconductor processing. They also allow scientists to study vibrational modes of molecules and rapid electron transitions in materials. In telecommunications, picosecond precision is necessary for characterizing optical fiber dispersion, jitter, and photonic switching. At such rapid intervals, the boundaries of classical physics begin to blur, leading toward quantum mechanical interpretations of time and energy.