femto- is an SI prefix (symbol f) in the SI system of units denoting a factor of 10−15 or 0.000 000 000 000 001. Adopted in 1964 by the 12th Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures [1], it comes from the Danish or Norwegianfemten (similar to Swedishfemton), from the Old Norsefimmtān, meaning fifteen.
Examples of units:
One femtosecond = 10−15 s
One femtojoule = 10−15 J
Example:
a proton has a diameter of about 1.6 to 1.7 femtometre
Note that the femtometre (10−15 of a metre) shares the same unit symbol (fm) with the older non-SI unit fermi, to which it is equivalent. The fermi, in honour of Enrico Fermi is often encountered in nuclear physics that is characteristic of this scale.