In our modern world a lot of words get thrown around without people really knowing what they mean. For instance, do you really know what a nanosecond is? If you’ve got a handle on your prefixes, you know it’s a billionth of a second — but what does that really mean? Thankfully, the celebrated computer scientist and decorated naval officer Rear Admiral Grace Hopper is here to explain. In the video, Hopper presents a nanosecond as 11.8 inches — that is, the distance that light can cover in space in a nanosecond. I think we can trust her on this one. After all, she wrote the first compiler and has both a supercomputer and a warship named after her. Though the video is old — Hopper died in 1992, so it has to be over a decade old — it is nonetheless fascinating.
(via Viral Viral Videos)
- Six fascinating thought experiments that’ll make you think
- Why do you get dizzy when you’re drunk?
- Vi Hart is here to teach you something about math
Published: Feb 27, 2012 06:04 pm