Grace Hopper on Letterman
Why Hacker News recommends it
Brought up whenever latency, light speed or the size of a nanosecond comes up, as the classic physical demonstration.
What it is
Grace Hopper appears on Letterman and uses a foot-long piece of wire to show how far light travels in a nanosecond.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2016 to 2018.
What Hacker News said
Recommends bouvin · 2017-12 · on “The fifth hyperfactorial: 5⁵ × 4⁴ × 3³ × 2² × 1¹ milliseconds is exactly 1 day”
No mention of the foot per nanosecond is complete without this seminal scene between the great, late Grace Hopper and David Letterman: [this video]
Cites baldfat · 2016-11 · on “SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed”
Latency Math (Almost 100ms faster then current technology) EDIT: This is only one way ALSO Grace Hopper telling David Letterman what a nano second is! [this video] 1 Nanosecond = distance light travels one foot 1 mile = 5260 nanoseconds (In a vacuum) Current Satellite Internet = 22,000 miles or 115720000 Nano Seconds = 115.72 ms SpaceX Low Orbit = 715 to 823 Miles 823 miles = 4328980 nano seconds = 4.3 ms
Cites adrianN · 2018-07 · on “Traveling to the Sun: Why Won't Parker Solar Probe Melt?”
Lightnanoseconds are a useful measure in everyday life as well. A lightnanosecond is about 30cm, or 1 foot. [this video]