Definition
An obsolete scientific unit equal to one femtometer (10⁻¹⁵ meters), named after physicist Enrico Fermi because apparently scientists enjoy naming impossibly tiny measurements after their colleagues. This is the scale where you're measuring things like atomic nuclei, where the concept of "really, really small" takes on a whole new meaning. It's been largely replaced by the femtometer, but physicists still use it occasionally when they want to confuse undergraduates.
Example Usage
The radius of a proton is approximately 0.8 fermis, which is the physics way of saying "so small you'll never see it, so just trust the math."
Source: Wiktionary via Free Dictionary API
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