Fortnight
Encyclopedia : F : FO : FOR : Fortnight
A fortnight is a unit of time equal to two weeks: that is 14 days, or literally 14 nights. The term is common in the British Isles and many Commonwealth countries, but rarely used in the United States. It derives from the Old English feowertiene niht, meaning "fourteen nights".
Breakdowns
- 1 fortnight = 2 sennights (or two weeks)
- 1 fortnight = 336 hours
- 1 fortnight = 20,160 minutes
- 1 fortnight = 1,209,600 seconds
Absurd usages
In the VMS operating system, some configuration parameters are specified in microfortnights (one millionth of a fortnight, or 1.2096 seconds). Millifortnights (about 20 minutes) and nanofortnights (1.2096 milliseconds) have also been used occasionally in computer science, usually in an attempt to be deliberately over-complex and obscure. The aim is generally to slow users down, allowing them to set parameters only after some thought.
One attoparsec per microfortnight is approximately 1.00432766 inches per second.
The speed unit of one furlong per fortnight is a barely noticeable 0.166 millimetres per second, or roughly one centimetre per minute.
See also
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.