Jiffy
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A jiffy can mean several different time intervals:
- A short period of time or a moment. The origin of the word is unknown, but is believed to have first appeared in 1779.
- In computing, the duration of one tick of the system timer interrupt. Typically, this time is 0.01 seconds.
- In physics, the time taken for light to travel one centimetre (sometimes one foot, or sometimes the width of a nucleon) - see speed of light
- In electronics, the time between alternating current power cycles (1/60 or 1/50 of a second) - see alternating current
- An indeterminate amount of time from a few seconds to forever.
- Jiffy is also a line of baking mixes manufactured by the Chelsea Milling Company (http://www.jiffymix.com).
References
- FOLDOC (http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?jiffy)
- The Jargon File (http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/J/jiffy.html)
- WhatIs.com (http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci822188,00.html)