Femtosecond

We received tonnes of email everyday. This one landed on my Inbox today and since I am in a mood to share, here goes:

A femtosecond is one billionth of one millionth of a second. Ahmed Hassan Zewail, the Egyptian American chemist, used femtoseconds to measure certain chemical reactions. For his great pioneering work, Zewail won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999, as well as the right to go through airport security one femtosecond faster than other people named Ahmed.

A femtosecond may seem like an inconceivably short time, but it does have applications outside science.

If you're a married man, you know all about femtoseconds. You experience them every day. A femtosecond is the amount of time it takes your wife to:

---glare at you when you look at another woman at the beach.

---start giving you a lecture when you make a wrong turn.

---switch channels after accidentally landing on ESPN.

---figure out if anyone at a party is wearing the same dress.

---decide what to buy when she receives a new credit card.

If you're a married woman, you don't need Dr. Zewail to explain femtoseconds to you. You've already got them down pat. A femtosecond is the amount of time it takes your husband to:

---glance at the instructions that came with the furniture assembly kit.

---figure out where the beer is kept at a party.

---switch channels after accidentally landing on Oprah.

---jump off the couch when you say, "I'm in the mood tonight .."

Femtoseconds are not just for married people, of course. Almost everyone encounters them now and then. It takes only a femtosecond for:

--The short line at the post office to turn into a long line.

---Bill Gates to make a buck.

---George Foreman to eat a pizza.

---The New York cabdriver to honk when the light turns green.