zeptojoule

See also: zepto-joule

English

Etymology

zepto- +‎ joule

Noun

zeptojoule (plural zeptojoules)

1. (metrology) An SI unit of energy equal to 10⁻²¹ joules. Symbol: zJ
   • 1996 September 15, Michael E. Benser, Robert E. Marquis, A. J. Hudspeth, “Rapid, Active Hair Bundle Movements in Hair Cells from the Bullfrog's Sacculus”, in The Journal of Neuroscience, 16(18), p. 5638:

     When a bundle with a drag coefficient of 200 nN · sec · m⁻¹ (Howard and Hudspeth, 1988) produced a 25 nm, triangle-wave twitch 5 msec in total duration (Fig. 12A), the energy dissipated against viscous drag was ~100 zJ (a zeptojoule is 10⁻²¹ J).

   • 2012, Christopher R. Jacobs, Hayden Huang, Ronald Y. Kwon, Introduction to Cell Mechanics and Mechanobiology, page 327:

     The associated work is
     W = 38.5 nm² × (10⁻⁹m/nm)² 35 pN/μm
     (10⁻¹² N/pN) (μm/10⁻⁶ m) = 1.35 × 10⁻²¹ J
     or about one zeptojoule.

   • 2015, Tsu-Jae King Liu, Kelin Kuhn, CMOS and Beyond, page 204:

     However, with zeptojoule scale switching energies and novel functionality, the BiSFET could add a substantial amount of road!

Derived terms

• zJ (abbreviation)