Seconds

The second (symbol: s) (abbreviated s or sec) is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). It is qualitatively defined as the second division of the hour by sixty, the first division by sixty being the minute. SI definition of second is "the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom". Seconds may be measured using a mechanical, electrical or an atomic clock.

SI prefixes are combined with the word second to denote subdivisions of the second, e.g., the millisecond (one thousandth of a second), the microsecond (one millionth of a second), and the nanosecond (one billionth of a second). Though SI prefixes may also be used to form multiples of the second such as kilosecond (one thousand seconds), such units are rarely used in practice. The more common larger non-SI units of time are not formed by powers of ten; instead, the second is multiplied by 60 to form a minute, which is multiplied by 60 to form an hour, which is multiplied by 24 to form a day.

The second is also the base unit of time in other systems of measurement: the centimeter–gram–second, meter–kilogram–second, meter–tonne–second, and foot–pound–second systems of units.