While commonly used in everyday speech to mean “in a moment” or “very quickly,” the jiffy has, in several contexts, come to represent specific, standardized durations of time.
The term jiffy may sound colloquial or whimsical, but it has a surprisingly rich and diverse history in science, computing, and electronics. Its earliest known appearance in scientific measurement dates back to the late 18th and early 19th centuries as a slang term in English to denote a very short, unspecified period of time.
Gravitational lensing occurs when a massive celestial body — such as a galaxy cluster — causes a sufficient curvature of spacetime for the path of light around it to be visibly bent, as if by a lens. The body causing the light to curve is accordingly called a gravitational lens.
Gravitational lenses are one of the most fascinating phenomena predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Imagine space as a fabric, and massive objects like stars and galaxies as weights pressing down on this fabric, creating curves and warps.
