microseconds

A microsecond (symbol μs) is one millionth of a second, equal to 10^-6 s. It is commonly used to describe short time intervals in science, engineering, and computing. The μ symbol represents the micro- prefix; in environments that cannot render μ, us or u are sometimes used.

In SI units, 1 μs = 1,000 nanoseconds (ns) = 0.001 milliseconds (ms); 1 second contains 1,000,000 μs.

Measuring microseconds requires precision timing devices such as high-resolution counters, time-to-digital converters, and stable clock sources. Software timers can provide microsecond or better resolution on capable hardware, while operating systems may offer various timing primitives.

Applications include computing and networking: CPU execution time, memory latency, disk I/O, and network round-trip times in local networks are often described in microseconds. In electronics and signal processing, microsecond timing is common for event sequencing and control pulses.

In science and engineering, microsecond-scale phenomena occur in particle experiments and magnetic resonance imaging, among others. The distance light travels in a microsecond is about 300 meters, illustrating its small but nonzero size. Microsecond timing requires specialized instrumentation and careful calibration.