Tiny slices of a second

The idea

A millisecond is one-thousandth of a second and a microsecond is one-millionth of a second.

Who won?

In a close race the winner can be decided by a very tiny difference in time. Sports timers measure very tiny parts of a second.

How small a part of a second do you think they can measure?

• One-thousandth of a second
• One minute
• One hour

Zoom in

Press Zoom in. Cut one second into a thousand parts. Then zoom in again.

Thousand and million

One of the thousand parts of a second is a millisecond. One of the thousand parts of a millisecond is a microsecond, and that is one-millionth of a second.

A millisecond is one-thousandth of a second and a microsecond is one-millionth of a second.

• Unit | Part of a second
• Millisecond | One-thousandth
• Microsecond | One-millionth

Notes

A millisecond is one-thousandth of a second and a microsecond is one-millionth of a second.

Check yourself

A millisecond is …

A microsecond is …

Which is the shorter time?

Smartphones and computers process signals in …

• one-millionth of a second. That is a microsecond.
• one-hundredth of a minute. A millisecond is one-thousandth of a second.
• one-thousandth of a second — correct. Yes!
• one-millionth of a second — correct. Yes!
• one-thousandth of a second. That is a millisecond.
• one thousand seconds. A microsecond is a tiny part of a second, not a large number of seconds.
• A millisecond. A millisecond is one-thousandth of a second. A microsecond is even shorter, one-millionth.
• A microsecond — correct. Yes!
• A second. A second is much longer than a microsecond.
• hours. They work much faster than that. They process signals in microseconds.
• minutes. They work much faster than that. They process signals in microseconds.
• microseconds — correct. Yes!