The units of time

Now that you understand the 12-hour and 24-hour clocks, let's look at the units of time, starting with the smallest:

• seconds
• minutes
• hours

Watch the video below which very clearly discusses the second, minute and hour.

Lincoln Learning Solutions. (2019). Units of time (Standard YouTube licence)

When working with these smaller units of time, it is important to remember the following rule:

When converting from larger to smaller units, multiply. When converting from smaller to larger units, divide! Now you just need to remember that there are 60 seconds in one minute and 60 minutes in one hour.

Remembering the above rule will assist you when you are required to convert from one unit of time to another!

Examples: Converting to a different unit

Let's take two easy examples to begin with:

Convert 2 minutes to seconds

• 1 minute = 60 seconds
• Since we are converting from a larger unit to smaller units, you will need to multiply
• » 2 minutes = (60 x 2) seconds
  
• » 2 minutes = 120 seconds
  

Convert 240 minutes to hours

• 60 minutes = 1 hour
• Since we are converting from smaller units to a larger unit, you will need to divide
• » 240 minutes ÷ 60 = ? hours
  
• » 240 minutes = 4 hours
  

Test your understanding of these examples by attempting the questions below.