Why Is the Smallest Unit of Time Called a ‘Jiffy’? #Video

Ever said, “I’ll be back in a jiffy”?
It turns out that a jiffy isn’t just a funny little word we use in everyday conversation — it’s an actual scientific unit of time. And depending on the field, it could mean anything from a trillionth of a second to the length of a computer clock tick.

In this video, we break down the surprising history of the word jiffy, explore why scientists adopted it, and reveal just how incredibly tiny a real scientific jiffy is. From physics and computing to slang and everyday speech, the story behind this word is much deeper — and faster — than you’d ever expect.
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