What is microsecond?
A microsecond is a unit of time equal to one millionth of a second. It is used in electronics, radar systems, telecommunications, and measuring the speed of high-frequency processes.
Real-world uses
Microseconds are used to measure CPU instruction execution times, radar pulse durations, and ultrasonic echo intervals. High-frequency trading systems operate on microsecond timescales, and camera flash durations are typically 1–1,000 µs.
History
The microsecond became measurable with the development of oscilloscopes and electronic timing circuits in the early 20th century. The prefix "micro-" was adopted from Greek and formally standardized as an SI prefix in 1960.
Common mistakes
Using "us" instead of "µs" as the symbol, which can cause confusion with the word "us" in text. Also, conflating microseconds with milliseconds in performance benchmarks, leading to 1000x reporting errors.
What is second?
The second is the SI base unit of time. It is used globally in science, engineering, computing, and everyday life, and is the foundation upon which all other time units are built.
Real-world uses
The second is the SI base unit of time, fundamental to all scientific measurement, computing clock cycles, athletic timing, and GPS satellite synchronization. Everyday timekeeping, cooking timers, and traffic light cycles all rely on seconds.
History
The concept of dividing the day into 86,400 parts dates to ancient Babylonian and Egyptian timekeeping. Since 1967, the SI second has been defined as 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation from a caesium-133 atom.
Common mistakes
Assuming a second has always been 1/86,400 of a day. The modern SI second is defined by caesium atom vibrations and is independent of Earth's rotation, which varies slightly due to tidal friction.
When is this conversion used?
Converting microsecond to second is useful in the time domain when comparing values across different measurement standards or applying formulas that require a specific unit.
Worked examples
1 microsecond = 0.000001 second
1 second = 1 second
How to convert microsecond to second
To convert microsecond to second, multiply the value by 0.000001.
To convert second back to microsecond, multiply by 1,000,000.
Measurement standards
The SI second is defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom, maintained by the BIPM and national metrology institutes worldwide.
Did you know?
Earth's rotation is gradually slowing due to tidal friction with the Moon. To keep atomic time aligned with solar time, "leap seconds" have been inserted 27 times since 1972 — though they are scheduled to be abolished by 2035.
Quick reference: microsecond to second
| microsecond | second |
|---|---|
| 0.1 | 1.000000e-07 |
| 0.5 | 5.000000e-07 |
| 1 | 0.000001 |
| 2 | 0.000002 |
| 5 | 0.000005 |
| 10 | 0.00001 |
| 25 | 0.000025 |
| 50 | 0.00005 |
| 100 | 0.0001 |
| 250 | 0.00025 |
| 500 | 0.0005 |
| 1,000 | 0.001 |
Common values
| microsecond | second | |
|---|---|---|
| Blink of an eye | 300,000 microsecond | 0.3 second |
| Average pop song | 210,000,000 microsecond | 210 second |
| Feature film | 7.200000e+09 microsecond | 7,200 second |
| One work day (8 hrs) | 2.880000e+10 microsecond | 28,800 second |
| One calendar year | 3.153600e+13 microsecond | 31,536,000 second |
Available Time units
More microsecond conversions
- Convert microsecond to second
- Convert microsecond to minute
- Convert microsecond to hour
- Convert microsecond to day
- Convert microsecond to week
- Convert microsecond to year (365 d)
- Convert microsecond to millisecond
- Convert microsecond to nanosecond
- Convert microsecond to century (100 yr)
Assumption: year is defined as 365 days and century values are approximate.