Terahertz to Degrees per second

For decades, electronics could generate frequencies up to ~100 GHz and optics could work down to ~10 THz, but the range between 0.1 and 10 THz was hard to reach from either direction. Electronic oscillators became too slow and lasers too low-energy. Only in the last 20 years have quantum cascade lasers and photoconductive antennas started closing this gap, opening new applications in imaging and spectroscopy.

Active scanners illuminate passengers with millimeter or terahertz waves (typically 0.1–1 THz), which pass through clothing but reflect off skin and dense objects. The reflected signal creates a body outline showing concealed items without ionising radiation. Because terahertz energy is about a million times weaker than an X-ray photon, it cannot break chemical bonds or damage DNA.

No. Terahertz photons carry far less energy than visible light photons and are non-ionising — they cannot knock electrons off atoms or damage DNA. At extremely high power they could heat tissue (like a microwave), but every practical terahertz imaging system operates at power levels thousands of times below any thermal threshold. You are bathed in more terahertz radiation from your own body heat than from an airport scanner.

Red light starts around 430 THz (700 nm wavelength) and violet reaches about 750 THz (400 nm). So the entire rainbow occupies roughly 430–750 THz. Infrared sits below red at 0.3–430 THz, and ultraviolet begins above violet at 750+ THz. When someone says "terahertz imaging," they mean the far-infrared end below about 10 THz — well below anything your eyes can detect.

For some applications, yes. Terahertz imaging can distinguish cancerous from healthy tissue based on water-content differences, and it does so without ionising radiation. It is already used experimentally during skin and breast cancer surgery to check tumor margins in real time. The limitation is penetration depth: terahertz waves are absorbed by water within millimeters, so they cannot image deep organs the way X-rays or MRI can.

Because °/s maps intuitively to human motion. Tilting your phone 90° in half a second means 180°/s — you can visualise that immediately. The same rate in rad/s (π ≈ 3.14) requires mental conversion. Consumer IMU datasheets list full-scale range in °/s (±250, ±500, ±2000°/s) because the target audience — app developers and game designers — thinks in degrees, not radians.

A standard-rate turn in aviation is 3°/s (completing 360° in two minutes), used for instrument approaches. A fighter jet in a hard combat turn can sustain 15–25°/s, and instantaneous snap rates during aggressive maneuvers can exceed 60°/s. At 20°/s in a tight bank, the pilot experiences 4–6 g of centripetal acceleration, which is near the limit of what a g-suit can compensate for.

A basketball spinning on a fingertip typically rotates at about 3–5 revolutions per second, which is 1,080–1,800°/s. The Harlem Globetrotters can push past 2,000°/s for brief showpiece spins. A professional bowler's ball rotates at roughly 300–500 RPM off the hand, which translates to about 1,800–3,000°/s. Spin rate matters for curve, grip, and the physics of the bounce.

PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) camera specs list maximum pan speed in °/s — typically 80–400°/s for preset movement and 0.1–5°/s for manual tracking. A camera that pans at 400°/s can whip from one side to the other in under a second, useful for switching between preset positions. The slower manual range lets an operator smoothly follow a walking person without jerky motion.

A standard-rate turn (Rate One) is defined as 3°/s, completing a full 360° circle in exactly two minutes. Air traffic controllers rely on this predictable rate to space aircraft in holding patterns and instrument approaches. The turn coordinator instrument in the cockpit marks the standard rate with reference lines. Faster rates exist (Rate Two is 6°/s), but standard rate keeps the bank angle comfortable at typical airspeeds.