Instant
≈ 2 min read
Names in other languages
No names in other languages are held for this entry yet.
Article bodies are English and are not machine-translated. A name in another language is not a translation of the article.
In physics and the philosophy of science, instant refers to an infinitesimal interval in time, whose passage is instantaneous. In ordinary speech, an instant has been defined as "a point or very short space of time," a notion deriving from its etymological source, the Latin verb instare, from in- + stare ('to stand'), meaning 'to stand upon or near.' The continuous nature of time and its infinite divisibility was addressed by Aristotle in his Physics, where he wrote on Zeno's paradoxes. The philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell was still seeking to define the exact nature of an instant thousands of years later. , the smallest time interval certified in regulated measurements is on the order of 397 zeptoseconds (397 × 10 −21 seconds).
In physics and the philosophy of science, instant refers to an infinitesimal interval in time, whose passage is instantaneous. In ordinary speech, an instant has been defined as "a point or very short space of time," a notion deriving from its etymological source, the Latin verb instare, from in- + stare ('to stand'), meaning 'to stand upon or near.' The continuous nature of time and its infinite divisibility was addressed by Aristotle in his Physics, where he wrote on Zeno's paradoxes. The philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell was still seeking to define the exact nature of an instant thousands of years later. , the smallest time interval certified in regulated measurements is on the order of 397 zeptoseconds (397 × 10 −21 seconds). ==In correspondence== In correspondence, particularly before the twentieth century, instant (usually abbreviated to inst.) can be used to indicate "of the current month". For example, "the 11th inst." means the 11th day of the current month. Its use is consistent with the Latin proximo (prox.) for the following month, and ultimo (ult.) for the month just past. ==See also== Infinitesimal Planck time Present ==References==
Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1375715689 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.