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{{Short description|Shortest interval in time}}
In [[physics]] and the [[philosophy of science]], '''instant''' refers to an [[infinitesimal]] interval in [[time]], whose passage is instantaneous. In ordinary speech, an '''instant''' has been defined as "a point or very short space of time," a notion deriving from its etymological source, the Latin verb ''instare'', from ''in-'' + ''stare'' ('to stand'), meaning 'to stand upon or near.'<ref>''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 4th ed. (1999), p. 740.</ref>

The continuous nature of time and its infinite divisibility was addressed by [[Aristotle]] in his ''[[Physics (Aristotle)|Physics]]'', where he wrote on [[Zeno's paradoxes]]. The philosopher and mathematician [[Bertrand Russell]] was still seeking to define the exact nature of an instant thousands of years later.<ref>{{citation |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=29E9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA129 |title=The structure of time |author=W. Newton-Smith |chapter=The Russellian construction of instants |page=129 |publisher=Routledge |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-7102-0389-2}}</ref>  In 2024, John William Stafford used algorithms to demonstrate that a time difference of zero could theoretically continue to expand (in various ways) to infinity, and subsequently described a new concept that he referred to as ''instantaneous''. He concluded by stating that ''instantaneous'' is, with respect to the measurement of time, mutually exclusive.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stafford |first=John William |title=EXISTENCE - A transcendence from instantaneous |date=2024 |year=2024 |isbn=978-1-7397830-3-7 |edition=1st |location=Ireland |pages=62 |language=English}}</ref>

{{As of|2020|October}}, the smallest time interval certified in regulated measurements is on the order of 397 zeptoseconds (397 × 10<sup>−21</sup> seconds).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201016090209.htm|title=Zeptoseconds: New state record in short time measurement|last=|first=|date=2020-10-16|website=|publisher=Science Daily|access-date=2010-05-12}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Wikt}}
* [[Infinitesimal]]
* [[Present]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Time topics}}
{{Time measurement and standards}}

[[Category:Time]]


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