What is the smallest fragment of time?

Answer 1

I believe the smallest fragment of time would be the time required for light to travel the Planck length. If the speed of light in a vacuum is about 300,000,000 m/s (3E8 m/s) and the Planck length is about 1.616E-35 m, the smallest fragment of time would be

1.616E-35 m / 3E8 m/s = 5.28E-44 seconds

This is called the Planck time, and is the shortest time division possible. You could try to get a shorter time - what about half a Planck time? - but it does not physically exist. Time is quantized, just like matter and energy.

Answer 2

The smallest unit of time that has been measured is 100 attoseconds or so. That is, ~ 10^-16 sec.

But the smallest unit of time in theory is 'planck time', a fundamental limit on measuring time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_time
Its the time taken for light to traverse planck length, thats in turn derived from many fundamental constants of nature (rather, physics).

Ofcourse, one 'can imagine' smaller units of time, but it has no grounding in reality. That is, it is not consistent with what we observe in the world (the connection is tortuous though).

Answer 3

I suspect this is a little like asking what the biggest number is. All someone has to do is to add (or in your case subtract) a bit from it and you have a new extreme.

eg: If someone said 1 attosecond, then someone else could suggest 1/10th of an attosecond.

It is going to be quite small in any event.

Answer 4

the Oh-NO second. This is the amount of time elapsed when you close the car door and think "oh-no, my keys", you stick your hand in, visualize your fingers being pinched and not being able to remove your hands, then finally pulling your hands back and wonder - what now?

From start to finish - All this happens in the realm of the OhNo second.

Answer 5

Pretty much 1/infinity seconds. Whatever number you give me I could take a half of, and a half of that, and a half of that, ect....

Answer 6

nano second I think... which is like 1/1000th of a second