1 second
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The second is the standard metric unit of time. To help compare orders of magnitude of different times this page lists times between 100 seconds and 103 seconds (1 and 1000 seconds). 100 seconds is called a centosecond. See also times of other orders of magnitude.
- 1 second; the amount of time it takes light in a vacuum to travel 299,792,458 metres or approximately 300,000 km (~186,282 miles)
- 1.2096 seconds – a VMS microfortnight
- 1.26 seconds – approximate time it takes light to travel between Earth and the Moon
- 3 seconds - the amount of time basketball players are allowed to remain in the key
- 3.16 seconds– one thousand-millionth (10-9) of a century. Its closeness to π in value leads to the expression "Pi seconds is a nanocentury".
- 8 seconds- the amount of time a bull rider must remain on the bull to be scored
- 9.58 seconds – world record for the men's 100 m sprint event (Usain Bolt, 2009)
- 26.784 seconds = length of time the year in the Gregorian calendar is longer than Earth's tropical year.
- 30 seconds – most common length of a TV commercial in the USA
- 32.184 seconds – the amount that Terrestrial Time precedes International Atomic Time
- 60 seconds = one minute
- 86.4 seconds = 1 minute 26.4 seconds = 10-3 days – the length of a Swatch "beat"
- 100 seconds – 1 minute 40 seconds, or 1.666... minutes
- 102 seconds – duration of the Minute Waltz of Frédéric Chopin, as recorded by Dinu Lipatti
- 120 seconds – duration of the Two Minutes Hate propaganda ritual in Nineteen Eighty Four
- 120 - 180 seconds = 2 – 3 minutes – approximate time for cooking instant noodles or for boiling an egg
- 158 seconds = 2 minutes, 38 seconds – the longest time a stuntman has withstood being set on fire without oxygen.
- 210 seconds = 3 minutes and 30 seconds – historic average elapsed time for a commercial broadcasting break period.
- 273 seconds – nominal duration of 4'33" by John Cage
- 315 seconds = 5.25 minutes (approximately 10−5 years) after the Big Bang – first nuclei form
- 500 seconds = 8.333... minutes – approximate time it takes light to travel between earth and the sun
- 660 seconds = 11 minutes – duration of a 1000-foot reel of 35mm motion picture film
- 674.784 seconds = amount by which the average year in the Julian calendar is longer than Earth's tropical year
- 930 seconds (approximately 15.5 minutes), may vary by performance, duration of the Brandenburg concertos#Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049 by Johann Sebastian Bach
- 1000 seconds – approximately 16.7 minutes
Half lives
- 27 seconds – half life of dubnium-261
- 30 seconds – half life of seaborgium-266
- 30 seconds – half life of ununquadium-289
- 34 seconds – half life of dubnium-262
- 61 seconds – half life of rutherfordium-261
- 102 seconds – half-life of nobelium-253
- 886 seconds – half-life of a free neutron