Second sound travels about 343 meters in one second in air; light takes 1.3 seconds to reach Earth from the surface of the Moon, a distance of 384,400 kilometers. A second is part of other units, such as frequency measured in hertz (inverse seconds or second), speed (meters per second) and acceleration (meters per second squared). The metric system unit becquerel, a measure of radioactive decay, is measured in inverse seconds. The meter is defined in terms of the speed of light and the second; definitions of the metric base units ampere and candela also depend on the second. Of the
Rayleigh (unit) Rayleigh (unit) The rayleigh is a unit of photon flux, used to measure airglow (auroras, for example). It was first proposed in 1956 by Donald M. Hunten, Franklin E. Roach, and Joseph W. Chamberlain. It is named for John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (1842–1919). Its symbol is R (also used for the röntgen, an unrelated unit). SI prefixes are used with the rayleigh. One rayleigh (1 R) is defined as a column emission rate of 10 photons per square metre per column per second. Note that rayleigh is an apparent emission rate, as no allowances have been made for