Word: millimicrosecond
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...term millimicrosecond is in common use to denote one-tenth of a shake, but a more picturesque name was suggested by Dr. J. W. Keuffel (then a student at CalTech). Since this is very nearly the time taken by light to travel twelve inches, he proposed that it be called the "lightfoot" by analogy with the common astronomical unit, the "light-year"-which is, of course, a measure of distance and not of time...
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