[Oberon]

...a laser pulse that lasts less than four femtoseconds (one femtosecond is one millionth of one billionth of a second)

Here's a question: How long, in inches, is that pulse of laser light?

[ComputerGuy]

I’ll betcha it ain’t very far.

[3niner]

Here's a question: How long, in inches, is that pulse of laser light?

About 0.00005 inches.

[antiRepublicrat]

Here's a question: How long, in inches, is that pulse of laser light?

Thanks to Grace Hopper, I know a nanosecond of light is just under a foot long. A nanosecond is a billionth of a second, so this would be just under 1/250,000th of a foot, or 0.0000472 inches.

[MarkL]

Here's a question: How long, in inches, is that pulse of laser light?

It depends on whether it's being measured by a man or a woman!

Mark

[jimt]

.1178 of one ten thousandths of an inch. 1.178496 X 10^-5.

[pfflier]

It is the transferred laser energy that excites the electron to leave it's valence orbit.

Figuring the speed of laser light (energy) at 3*10^8 m/sec * (the time being) 1*10^-15 = 3*10^-7m * 39/36 (converts meters to inches) = 3.25*10^-7 inches

That is the laser's wavelength, not necessarily the pulse length.