Bonzi, the fun helpful informative (irritating, corporate) purple web ape told me that a jiffy is an actual unit of time, equal to 1/100th of a second. Reading The Straight Dope has made me cynical about these sorts of “fun facts”, and my dictionary says nothing of this, so I’ll ask you guys- is their any truth to this whatsoever?
Personally, I’d use “millisecond”.
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader says the same thing. They don’t give a cite for everything, but they use a lot of reputable sources, including the Straight Dope.
a Jiffy is 1/1000 of a “moment” and 1/10,000 of a “little bit” - when referring to time measurement. It is also equivalent to 10[sup]e[/sup] “ohnoseconds”, which is the time between you realizing that you left your keys in the car and you hearing the car door slam behind you.
It’s 20-25 minutes at Jiffy Lube.
Where I come from, “Jiffy” is slang for a condom, and therefore this question is taking on rather personal overtones…
Gp
Funny – I was taught (back in the days when my school had cassette tape drives :eek: )that a jiffy was 1/50 of a second – but I went to school in the US. I wonder where my teacher learned it…
A jiffy is the amount of time it should take you to get rid of that goddamn purple monkey. Cursed was the day I downloaded it and it took me a lot more than a jiffy until I figured out (with a little help from my friends on the SDMB) how.
Physicists, on the other hand, typically define the jiffy as the time it takes for light to travel either one meter, or the diameter of a hydrogen atom. Much smaller than the computer unit, I’d say.
About the same lenght as a “round-to-it.”
Twice as long as a “snap” and almost 5 times shorter than a “thrice”.
Ancient Sumarians used a measure of time known as the Jyftykx. This information was unearthed at the same time as definitive proof that Charlton Heston really did part the Red Sea- and did so with significantly MORE upper torso definition than that lazy-assed leader of many, Moses. 
The Jyftykx was roughly the time it took an Egyptian Mosquito to light upon one’s arm and penetrate the dermis layer. Grecians shortened the word to Jyfty, and then once the Gauls got ahold of it, it was known as * Le Jyftee*, or the Little Pause. Modern scholars acknowledge that while the Gauls may have added unnecessary vowels ( as is SO frequently the case with the French ), the real milestone in the development of this word came when it reached Scandinavia. There, it became known as “Jifftygooorensonskaag”, or " longest freaking word ever used for a nanosecond".
I love etymology. I just wish I could stop with the compulsive lying.
Cartooniverse
Now wait a jiffy, bub. How can a round-to-it have a length? It has a diameter of “about that much”.
I’ve never heard of a jiffy being an actual measure of time. I thought it was a little less than “just a sec”.
Cartooniverse: LOL, but I think you meant a trice, not thrice. And how long is thrice a trice, anyway?
All these different definitions of jiffy are confusing. Maybe it’s time to standardize things, add it to SI or something. And add trice to SI at the same time. Then we can start using units like Yottajiffy and zeptotrice (I did run into a use of zeptonewton recently. Surprised me as I didn’t think anyone was actually using any of those new prefixes.)
** blink. blink.**. Oh shit. You’re so very right, I meant a trice.
Thrice a trice is exactly three times longer than an unotrice.