zeptojoule

Noun

zeptojoule (plural zeptojoules)

1. An SI unit of energy equal to 10⁻²¹ joules. Symbol: zJ
   • 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).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....
   • 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.2012, Christopher R. Jacobs, Hayden Huang, Ronald Y. Kwon, Introduction to Cell Mechanics and Mechanobiology, page 327