Orders of magnitude (frequency)

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)	Multiple	Value	Item
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 pHz	Precession 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
10−9	1 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
10−8	10 nHz	11.6699016 nHz	Once in a blue moon[2]
		~31.71 nHz	Yearly (or Earth's orbital frequency)
10−7	100 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.
100	1 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
101	10 hertz	10 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
102	100 Hz	100 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]
103	1 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
104	10 kHz	14 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 kHz	Acoustic – 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
109	1 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
1010	10 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
1013	10 THz	21 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 RHz	Highest energy (16 TeV) gamma ray detected, from Markarian 501
1030	1 quettahertz (QHz)
1043	10 trillion QHz	18.5 trillion QHz	The unit of inverse time (or frequency) in the system of Planck units

See also

• Hertz
• Orders of magnitude (rotational speed)

References

1. "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. Olson, Harry F. (1967). Music, Physics and Engineering. Dover Publications. p. 249. ISBN 0-486-21769-8.
4. Hessels, J. W. T.; Ransom, S. M.; Stairs, I. H.; Freire, P. C.; Kaspi, V. M.; Camilo, F. (2006). "A Radio Pulsar Spinning at 716 Hz". Science. 311 (5769): 1901–1904. arXiv:astro-ph/0601337. Bibcode:2006Sci...311.1901H. doi:10.1126/science.1123430. PMID 16410486. S2CID 14945340.
5. "Fastest Transistor Approaches Terahertz Speed". Highbeam. 2007-01-01. Archived from the original on 2012-11-05.
6. "World's fastest transistor approaches goal of terahertz device". Illinois News Bureau. December 11, 2006.