English Language & Usage Asked on February 26, 2021
I was thinking that there should be a word for a 60th of a second, is there?
Our hours and minutes are split into 60ths so it makes sense to me. Also, 60fps (frames per second) is a common framerate in game development.
You could call it a "third" if you wanted to. But, of course, it is not commonly used. Etymologically:
pars minuta prima, first diminished part (1/60 of an hour), was shortened to "minute"
pars minuta secunda, second diminished part (1/60 of that), was shortened to "second"
So how would you shorten the next in line, 1/60 of that?
Here we go:
In 1267, the medieval scientist Roger Bacon stated the times of full moons as a number of hours, minutes, seconds, thirds, and fourths (horae, minuta, secunda, tertia, and quarta) after noon on specified calendar dates.
added
In English, the Oxford English Dictionary has this as its earliest usage of third for angles: "Euery degree..doth containe 60 minutes, and euery minute 60 seconds, and euery second 60 thirds, &c." quoting Seamans Secrets (1595) by J. Davis
Correct answer by GEdgar on February 26, 2021
There appears to be no such word; fractions of seconds are denoted, when necessary with terms like "millisecond" (0.001 seconds) and "microsecond" (0.000001 seconds).
Answered by James McLeod on February 26, 2021
The term jiffy was used on the Commodore 64 and the Vic 20 to stand for 1/60th of a second (although Wikipedia claims it was either 59.94 Hz or 50 Hz).
Tick has been used for the same purpose (basic unit of time) on other computers.
The Wiktionary page for jiffy shows the meaning as "A unit of time defined by the frequency of its basic timer; historically, and by convention, 0.01 seconds, but some operating systems use other values", and Wiktionary defines tick as "A jiffy (unit of time defined by basic timer frequency)".
In the U.S., one could reasonably use the "electronics" sense of jiffy, which is "The time between alternating current power cycles (1/60 or 1/50 of a second)", as a name for 1/60th of a second.
Answered by James Waldby - jwpat7 on February 26, 2021
My best bet is with Jiffy, which is an informal term.
In electronics (electrical engineering), a jiffy is the time between alternating current power cycles,[2] 1/60 or 1/50 of a second in most building power supplies — see alternating current.
Answered by Incognito on February 26, 2021
A 60 sided 2D shape is a hexacontagon, and a 60 sided 3D object is a hexecontahedron. So, as deca- is x10 and deci is /10, we get hexecontisecond (or hexacontisecond). Unfortunately, no one will know what you're taking about.
A 60th of second is about 0.0166666667 seconds, or 16.6666667 milliseconds, or 17 ms.
You could also refer to it as 60 Herz or 60 Hz; meaning 60 times a second.
Answered by Hugo on February 26, 2021
Fractional seconds may be referred to as ticks, with duration either assumed from context, or explicitly given such as "60 ticks/second" or "50 ms ticks."
Answered by Mr.Wizard on February 26, 2021
In some programming languages 1/60th of a second is a 'Step'
Answered by aero on February 26, 2021
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