query: What is the smallest unit of time?
passage: Unit of time
The jiffy is the amount of time light takes to travel one fermi (about the size of a nucleon) in a vacuum. Planck time is the time light takes to travel one Planck length. Theoretically, this is the smallest time measurement that will ever be possible. Smaller time units have no use in physics as we understand it today. The TU (for Time Unit) is a unit of time defined as 1024µs for use in engineering. The Svedberg is a time unit used for sedimentation rates (usually of proteins). It is defined as 10−13 seconds (100 fs). The galactic year, based on the rotation of the galaxy, and usually measured in million years.[2] The geological time scale relates stratigraphy to time. The deep time of Earth’s past is divided into units according to events which took place in each period. For example, the boundary between the Cretaceous period and the Paleogene period is defined by the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The largest unit is the supereon, composed of eons. Eons are divided into eras, which are in turn divided into periods, epochs and ages. It is not a true mathematical unit, as all ages, epochs, periods, eras or eons don't have the same length; instead, their length is determined by the geological and historical events that define them individually.
passage: Minute
The minute is a unit of time or angle. As a unit of time, the minute is most of times equal to (the first sexagesimal fraction) of an hour, or 60 seconds. In the UTC time standard, a minute on rare occasions has 61 seconds, a consequence of leap seconds (there is a provision to insert a negative leap second, which would result in a 59-second minute, but this has never happened in more than 40 years under this system). As a unit of angle, the minute of arc is equal to of a degree, or 60 seconds (of arc). Although not an SI unit for either time or angle, the minute is accepted for use with SI units for both. The SI symbols for "minute" or "minutes" are min for time measurement, and the prime symbol after a number, e.g. 5′, for angle measurement. The prime is also sometimes used informally to denote minutes of time.