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# Converting units of time review (seconds, minutes, & hours)

Review the size of seconds, minutes, and hours and how to convert between them.  Then, try some practice problems.

### Units of time

Units of time measure how long something lasts. For example, how many seconds can you hold your breath, or how many minutes long is your favorite movie?

## How long are different units?

A second is a short amount of time. It takes about 1 second to turn on a light or open the refrigerator door.
A minute is equal to 60 seconds. It takes about 1 minute to brush your teeth.
An hour is equal to 60 minutes. Extracurricular activities (gymnastics, piano lessons, soccer practice) often last about 1 hour.

## Practice set 1: Estimating time

Problem 1A
Identify the most reasonable unit to measure the time it takes to bake a pan of cookies.

Want to try more problems like this? Check out this exercise.

## Converting larger units to smaller units

1, start text, space, m, i, n, u, t, e, end text, equals, start color #1fab54, 60, end color #1fab54, start text, space, s, e, c, o, n, d, s, end text
1, start text, space, h, o, u, r, end text, equals, start color #1fab54, 60, end color #1fab54, start text, space, m, i, n, u, t, e, s, end text
To convert larger units to smaller units we multiply the number of larger units by start color #1fab54, 60, end color #1fab54.
Example: Converting hours to minutes
1, start text, space, h, o, u, r, end text, equals, start color #1fab54, 60, end color #1fab54, start text, space, m, i, n, u, t, e, s, end text
start color #11accd, 6, end color #11accd, start text, space, h, o, u, r, s, end text, equals, start color #11accd, 6, end color #11accd, times, start color #1fab54, 60, end color #1fab54, equals, 360, start text, space, m, i, n, u, t, e, s, end text

## Converting smaller units to larger units

To convert smaller units to larger units we divide the number of smaller units by start color #1fab54, 60, end color #1fab54.
1, start text, space, s, e, c, o, n, d, end text, equals, start fraction, 1, divided by, start color #28ae7b, 60, end color #28ae7b, end fraction, start text, space, m, i, n, u, t, e, end text
1, start text, space, m, i, n, u, t, e, end text, equals, start fraction, 1, divided by, start color #28ae7b, 60, end color #28ae7b, end fraction, start text, space, h, o, u, r, end text
Example: Converting seconds to minutes
1, start text, space, s, e, c, o, n, d, end text, equals, start fraction, 1, divided by, start color #28ae7b, 60, end color #28ae7b, end fraction, start text, space, m, i, n, u, t, e, end text
start color #ff00af, 30, end color #ff00af, start text, space, s, e, c, o, n, d, s, end text, equals, start fraction, start color #ff00af, 30, end color #ff00af, divided by, start color #28ae7b, 60, end color #28ae7b, end fraction, equals, start color #6495ed, start fraction, 1, divided by, 2, end fraction, end color #6495ed, start text, space, m, i, n, u, t, e, end text

## Practice set 2: Converting units of time

Problem 2A
Convert.
11 minutes equals
seconds

Want to try more problems like this? Check out these exercises:
Convert larger units to smaller units
Converting between units

## Want to join the conversation?

• How many seconds are in an hour?
• There are really only 23hrs and 56 mins in a day
• if you live to be 123 years old how many weeks , days hours, minutes and seconds did you live?
• for the first section and the third question it says what the average time to pick up the phone is seconds but what if you can't find your phone.Then it can take more than a few seconds. It could take roughly 15 seconds
• I lost my phone so it toke longer to find. (more like 1 hour)
• how many seconds are in 11 minutes?
• why would it be seconds = 1/60 of a minute. It would be easier to say minute = 60 seconds?
(1 vote)
• It might have wanted to express minute = 60 seconds with fractions.
• think about how old you are now try and think how much Hours you lived :)
• bug sanders do better on your numbers 31,536,00 that is not a real number unless you do 3,153,600
(1 vote)
• how many yards are in a mile
• How do you convert from minutes and seconds to months and vice versa? What about to years?
• Just convert the units!

For instance:
1000 min x (1 hr / 60 min) x (1 day / 24 hr) x (1 month / 30.5 days)
= 1000 / (60 x 24 x 30.5) months
= 0.02277 months

So 1000 minutes = 0.02277 months

Also:
1 month x (30.5 days / 1 month) x (24 hr / 1 day) x (60 min / 1 hr) x (60 sec / 1 min)
= (1 x 30.5 x 24 x 60 x 60) sec
= 2,635,200 sec

So 1 month = 2,635,200 seconds

And:
0.02277 months x (1 year / 12 months)
= 0.001898 years

So 1000 minutes = 0.001898 years