Join FunTrivia for Free: Hourly trivia games, quizzes, community, and more!
Fun Trivia
Ask FunTrivia: Questions and Answers
Answers to 100,000 Fascinating Questions
Welcome to FunTrivia's Question & Answer forum!

Search All Questions


Please cite any factual claims with citation links or references from authoritative sources. Editors continuously recheck submissions and claims.

Archived Questions

Goto Qn #


Is a jiffy an actual unit of time? As in "be there in a jiffy"?

Question #102023. Asked by JennaXbear.
Last updated Sep 23 2016.

mk2norwich
Answer has 3 votes
mk2norwich

Answer has 3 votes.
A 'jiffy' in British English means much the same as 'moment'. No specific length of time constitutes a jiffy, so it could mean two minutes or two hours.

Apr 18 2002, 5:19 AM
Senior Moments
Answer has 5 votes
Senior Moments

Answer has 5 votes.
According to the New Hackers Dictionary a jiffy is 1.)the duration of one tick of the system clock on your computer (see tick). Often one AC cycle time (1/60 second in the U.S. and Canada, 1/50 most other places), but more recently 1/100 sec has become common. 'The swapper runs every 6 jiffies' means that the virtual memory management routine is executed once for every 6 ticks of the clock, or about ten times a second. 2.) Confusingly, the term is sometimes also used for a 1-millisecond wall time interval. Even more confusingly, physicists semi-jokingly use %60jiffy' to mean the time required for light to travel one foot in a vacuum, which turns out to be close to one nanosecond. 3.) Indeterminate time from a few seconds to forever. 'I'll do it in a jiffy' means certainly not now and possibly never. This is a bit contrary to the more widespread use of the word. - link www.instinct.org/texts/jargon-file/jargon_25.html

Apr 18 2002, 6:45 AM
Andy
Answer has 10 votes
Andy
24 year member
197 replies

Answer has 10 votes.
A jiffy is an actual measurement of time. It is 1/100 of a second.

May 08 2002, 11:35 AM
avatar
zbeckabee
Answer has 8 votes
zbeckabee
Moderator
18 year member
11752 replies avatar

Answer has 8 votes.
Depends on who is saying it. I have a sister who runs in three speeds...slow, slower and stop. Her "in a jiffies" last approximately 10 years.

However, to a normal person a "jiffy" is a "moment" or is the time it takes light to traverse the distance of 1 centimeter (33.3 pico seconds = 0.000,000,000,033,300 seconds).
1 light - cm is pretty quick!

Mar 27 2006, 11:52 AM
Brainyblonde
Answer has 3 votes
Brainyblonde
23 year member
1455 replies

Answer has 3 votes.
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.

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*.


a very short time (as the time it takes the eye blink or the heart to beat); "if I had the chance I'd do it in a flash"
link http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=jiffy

Mar 27 2006, 12:31 PM
avatar
guitargoddess star
Answer has 19 votes
Currently Best Answer
guitargoddess star
21 year member
233 replies avatar

Answer has 19 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
Informally, it is just an unspecified short period of time. However, different disciplines over time have defined specific time intervals for the term.

In electronics, the term means 1/60 or 1/50 of a second.

In computing, it is not an exact measure of time, but it is used to describe one tick of the system timer interrupt. Alternatively, it could be 1/250 of a second.

In physics, a jiffy is the time taken for light to travel to a specified distance, or the time it takes for light to travel one fermi making a jiffy 3 x 10 (to the -29th power)seconds.

The term "jiffy" is sometimes used in computer animation as a method of defining playback rate, with the delay interval between individual frames specified in 1/100th-of-a-second (10 ms) jiffies.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiffy_(time)

Response last updated by Terry on Sep 23 2016.
Dec 30 2008, 9:27 PM
avatar
star_gazer star
Answer has 3 votes
star_gazer star
22 year member
5236 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.
In electronics, a jiffy is the time between alternating current power cycles (1/60 or 1/50 of a second) — see alternating current.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiffy_(time)


Dec 30 2008, 9:28 PM
JennaXbear
Answer has 5 votes
JennaXbear

Answer has 5 votes.
1/100 second is commonly cited, but 1/50 and 1/60 are used as well.

link http://www.dictionary.com/browse/jiffy

Response last updated by nautilator on Aug 23 2016.
Dec 30 2008, 9:33 PM
avatar
zbeckabee star
Answer has 4 votes
zbeckabee star
Moderator
18 year member
11752 replies avatar

Answer has 4 votes.
jiffy: n.
1. The duration of one tick of the system clock on your computer (see tick). Often one AC cycle time (1/60 second in the U.S. and Canada, 1/50 most other places), but more recently 1/100 sec has become common. “The swapper runs every 6 jiffies” means that the virtual memory management routine is executed once for every 6 ticks of the clock, or about ten times a second.

2. Confusingly, the term is sometimes also used for a 1-millisecond wall time interval.

3. 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. Other physicists use the term for the quantum-nechanical lower bound on meaningful time lengths,

4. Indeterminate time from a few seconds to forever. “I'll do it in a jiffy” means certainly not now and possibly never. This is a bit contrary to the more widespread use of the word.

link http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/J/jiffy.html

Dec 30 2008, 10:20 PM
free email trivia FREE! Get a new mixed Fun Trivia quiz each day in your email. It's a fun way to start your day!


arrow Your Email Address:

Sign in or Create Free User ID to participate in the discussion