jiffy

1. The duration of one tick of the computer's systemclock. 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. 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*.

[Jargon File]

(2002-03-02)