Orders of magnitude (frequency) explained

The following list illustrates various frequencies, measured in hertz, according to decade in the order of their magnitudes, with the negative decades illustrated by events and positive decades by acoustic or electromagnetic uses.

Factor
(Hz)
MultipleValueItem
10−18 1 attohertz (aHz) ~2.2978 aHz The Hubble constant (once in 13.8 billion years)
10−17 10 aHz ~79 aHz Supercontinent cycle (about every 400 million years)
10−16 100 aHz ~137.8 aHz Once per galactic year (about every 230 million years)
10−15 1 femtohertz (fHz) ~3 fHz Sound waves created by a supermassive black hole in the Perseus cluster[1]
10−14 10 fHz ~31.71 fHz Once every one million years
10−12 1 picohertz (pHz) 1.23 pHzPrecession of the Earth's axis (about every 25,700 years)
10−11 10 pHz ~31.71 pHz Once per millennium
10−10 100 pHz ~317.1 pHz Once per century
10−91 nanohertz (nHz)~1 nHz Once per generation (about every 30 years)
~2.9 nHz Average solar cycle (about every 11 years)
~3.171 nHz Once per decade
10−810 nHz11.6699016 nHz Once in a blue moon[2]
~31.71 nHz Yearly (or Earth's orbital frequency)
10−7100 nHz~380.5 nHz Monthly (or the Moon's orbital frequency)
~413 nHz Average menstrual cycle (28 days)
10−6 1 microhertz (μHz) ~1.653 μHz Weekly
10−5 10 μHz ~11.57 μHz Daily (or Earth's rotation frequency)
10−4 100 μHz ~277.8 μHz Hourly
10−2 1 centihertz (cHz) ~16.667 mHz One rpm
10−1 1 decihertz (dHz) 189 mHz Acoustic frequency of G−7, the lowest note sung by the singer with the deepest voice in the world, Tim Storms. His vocal cords vibrate 1 time every 5.29 seconds.
1001 hertz (Hz)1 to 1.66 Hz Approximate frequency of an adult human's resting heart beat
1 Hz 60 bpm, common tempo in music
2 Hz 120 bpm, common tempo in music
~7.83 Hz Fundamental frequency of the Schumann resonances
10110 hertz10 Hz Cyclic rate of a typical automobile engine at idle (equivalent to 600 rpm)
12 Hz Acoustic the lowest possible frequency that a human can hear[3]
18 Hz Average house cat's purr
24 Hz Common frame rate of movies
27.5 Hz Acoustic the lowest musical note (A0) playable on a normally-tuned standard piano
50 Hz Electromagnetic standard AC mains power (European AC, Tokyo AC),
refresh rate of PAL and SECAM CRT televisions
60 Hz Electromagnetic standard AC mains power (American AC, Osaka AC),
refresh rate of NTSC CRT televisions and standard refresh rate of computer monitors
102100 Hz100 Hz Cyclic rate of a typical automobile engine at redline (equivalent to 6000 rpm)
261.626 Hz Acoustic the musical note middle C (C4)
440 Hz Acoustic concert pitch (A above middle C; A4), used for tuning musical instruments
716 Hz Rotational period of one of the fastest known millisecond pulsars, PSR J1748−2446ad[4]
1031 kilohertz (kHz)1 kHz Usual frequency of a bleep censor
4.186 kHz Acoustic the highest musical note (C8) playable on a normally-tuned standard piano
8 kHz ISDN sampling rate
10410 kHz14 kHz Acoustic the typical upper limit of adult human hearing
17.4 kHz Acoustic a frequency known as the Mosquito, which is generally only audible to those under the age of 24.
25.1 kHzAcoustic G10, the highest pitch sung by Georgia Brown, who has a vocal range of 8 octaves.
44.1 kHz Common audio sampling frequency
105 100 kHz 740 kHz The clock speed of the world's first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004 (1971)
106 1 megahertz (MHz) 530 kHz to 1.710 MHz Electromagnetic AM radio broadcasts
1 MHz to 8 MHz Clock speeds of early home/personal computers (mid-1970s to mid-1980s)
107 10 MHz 13.56 MHz Electromagnetic near field communication
108 100 MHz 88 MHz to 108 MHz Electromagnetic FM radio broadcasts
902 to 928 MHz Electromagnetic common cordless telephone frequency in the US
1091 gigahertz (GHz)1.42 GHz Electromagnetic the hyperfine transition of hydrogen, also known as the hydrogen line or 21 cm line
2.4 GHz Electromagnetic microwave ovens, wireless LANs and cordless phones (starting in 1998)
2.6–3.8 GHz A common desktop CPU speed as of 2014
5.8 GHz Electromagnetic cordless telephone frequency introduced in 2003
101010 GHz 3 GHz to 30 GHz Electromagnetic super high frequency
60 GHz Electromagnetic 60 GHz Wi-Fi (WiGig) introduced in 2010
1011 100 GHz 160.2 GHz Electromagnetic peak of cosmic microwave background radiation
845 GHz Fastest transistor (December 2006).[5] [6]
1012 1 terahertz (THz) The terahertz gap
101310 THz21 THz to 33 THz Electromagnetic infrared light used in thermal imaging, for example for night vision
31.5 THz Electromagnetic peak of black-body radiation emitted by human body
1014 100 THz 400 THz to 790 THz Electromagnetic visible light, from red to violet
1015 1 petahertz (PHz) 2.47 PHz Electromagnetic Lyman-alpha line
1016 10 PHz 30 PHz Electromagnetic X-rays
1017 100 PHz
1018 1 exahertz (EHz)
1019 10 EHz
1020 100 EHz 300 EHz + Electromagnetic gamma rays
1021 1 zettahertz (ZHz) 36 ZHz Resonance width of the rho meson
1024 1 yottahertz (YHz)
1027 1 ronnahertz (RHz) 3.9 RHzHighest energy (16 TeV) gamma ray detected, from Markarian 501
1030 1 quettahertz (QHz)
1043 10 trillion QHz 18.5 trillion QHzThe unit of inverse time (or frequency) in the system of Planck units

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Black Hole Sound Waves NASA Science.
  2. Google Calculator result for "once in a blue moon"
  3. 20 Hz is considered the normal low frequency limit of human hearing. When pure sine waves are reproduced under ideal conditions and at very high volume, a human listener will be able to identify tones as low as 12 Hz. Book: Olson, Harry F. . Harry F. Olson

    . Music, Physics and Engineering . Harry F. Olson . 1967. Dover Publications . 0-486-21769-8 . 249 .

  4. Hessels . J. W. T. . Ransom . S. M. . Stairs . I. H. . Freire . P. C. . Kaspi . V. M. . Camilo . F. . A Radio Pulsar Spinning at 716 Hz . 10.1126/science.1123430 . Science . 311 . 5769 . 1901–1904 . 2006 . 16410486. astro-ph/0601337 . 2006Sci...311.1901H . 14945340 .
  5. Web site: Fastest Transistor Approaches Terahertz Speed . https://web.archive.org/web/20121105004545/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-157174290.html . 2012-11-05 . Highbeam . 2007-01-01.
  6. Web site: World's fastest transistor approaches goal of terahertz device . Illinois News Bureau . December 11, 2006.