jiffy (redirected from jiff)

jiffy

A fraction of time that has numerous interpretations depending on who uses it. It may refer to one computer clock cycle, one nanosecond, one millisecond or one AC power cycle. There may be others. See nanosecond.

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1.		jiffy - The duration of one tick of the computer's system clock. Often one AC cycle time (1/60 second in the US and Canada, 1/50 most other places), but more recently 1/100 sec has become common.
2.		jiffy - Confusingly, the term is sometimes also used for a 1-millisecond wall time interval. Even more confusingly, physicists semi-jokingly use "jiffy" to mean the time required for light to travel one foot in a vacuum, which turns out to be close to one *nanosecond*.