Millisecond

Horizontal logarithmic scale marked with units of time

A millisecond (from milli- and second; abbreviation: ms) is a thousandth (10⁻³ or ¹/_1,000) of a second.^[1] Its symbol is ms. One millisecond is to one second as one second is to 16.67 minutes.

10 milliseconds (a hundredth of a second) are called a centisecond, commonly seen on many stopwatches but often mistaken for milliseconds.

100 milliseconds (one tenth of a second) are called a decisecond.

To help compare orders of magnitude of different times, this page lists times between 10⁻³ seconds and 10⁰ seconds (1 millisecond and one second). See also times of other orders of magnitude.

Examples

1 millisecond is 0.001 seconds, 2 ms is 0.002 seconds etc.
1 millisecond (1 ms) — cycle time for frequency 1 kHz; duration of light for typical photo flash strobe; time taken for sound wave to travel ca. 34 cm; repetition interval of GPS C/A PN code
1.000692286 milliseconds — time taken for light to travel 300 km in a vacuum
2 milliseconds to 5 milliseconds - typical response time in LCD computer monitors, especially high-end displays
2.27 milliseconds — cycle time for A440 (pitch standard), the most commonly used pitch for tuning musical instruments
3 milliseconds — a housefly's wing flap
3.3 milliseconds — normal delay time between initiation and detonation of a C4 explosive charge
4 milliseconds — typical average seek time for a 10,000 rpm hard disk
5 milliseconds — a honey bee's wing flap
5 milliseconds to 80 milliseconds — a hummingbird's wing flap
8 milliseconds — 1/125 of a second, a standard camera shutter speed (125); fastest shifting time of a car's mechanical transmission
10 milliseconds (10 ms) — a jiffy, cycle time for frequency 100 Hz
11 milliseconds — the latency on a Spektrum Dx7SE radio controlled transmitter^[2]
16.67 milliseconds (1/60 second) — a third, cycle time for American 60 Hz AC electricity (mains grid)
16.68 milliseconds (1/59.94 second) — the amount of time one field lasts in 29.97fps interlaced video (commonly erroneously referred to as 30fps)
20 milliseconds — cycle time for European 50 Hz AC electricity
24 milliseconds — minimum ignition time for a U.S. Rockets^[3] company solid rocket motor
31.25 milliseconds - a hundred twenty-eighth note at MM = 60
33.3 milliseconds — the amount of time one frame lasts in 30fps video
33.367 milliseconds — the amount of time one frame lasts in 29.97fps video (most common for NTSC-legacy formats)
41.167 milliseconds — the amount of time one frame lasts in 24fps video (most common cinematic frame rate)
41.708 milliseconds — the amount of time one frame lasts in 23.976fps video (cinematic frame rate for NTSC-legacy formats)
50 milliseconds — the time interval between gear changes on a Lamborghini Aventador
50 milliseconds — cycle time for the lowest audible tone, 20 Hz
60 milliseconds — cycle time for European 16.7 Hz AC electrified railroad power grid
60 milliseconds — the time interval between gear changes on a Ferrari 458 Spider
62.5 milliseconds — a sixty-fourth note at MM = 60
5 to 80 milliseconds — typical latency for a broadband internet connection (important for playing online games)
100 milliseconds — the time interval between gear changes on a Ferrari FXX
125 milliseconds — a thirty-second note at MM = 60
134 milliseconds — time taken by light to travel around the Earth's equator
150 milliseconds — recommended maximum time delay for telephone service
185 milliseconds — the duration of a full rotation of the main rotor on Bell 205, 212 and 412 helicopters (normal rotor speed is 324 RPM)
200 milliseconds — the time it takes the human brain to recognize emotion in facial expressions
250 milliseconds — a sixteenth note at MM = 60
300 to 400 milliseconds — the time for the human eye to blink
400 milliseconds — time in which the fastest baseball pitches reach the strike zone
430 to 500 milliseconds — common modern dance music tempos (120 – 140 BPM)
495 milliseconds — an approximate average of the round trip time for communications via geosynchronous satellites
500 milliseconds — an eighth note at MM = 60
860 milliseconds — average human resting heart cycle time
1000 milliseconds — one second; the period of a 1 Hz oscillator
86,400,000 ( $24\times60\times60\times10\times10\times10$ ) milliseconds — one day
31,556,908,800 ( $86,400,000\times365.242$ ) milliseconds — one year

Half-lives

For a list half-lives in this timescale, see: List of isotopes by half-life

References

^ New Oxford Dictionary
^ [1]
^ [2]

External links

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

[1] New Oxford Dictionary

[2] [1]

[3] [2]

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Orders of magnitude of time
by powers of ten
Negative powers	<1 attosecond attosecond femtosecond picosecond nanosecond microsecond millisecond
Positive powers	second kilosecond megasecond gigasecond terasecond and longer