Breaking an Hour Into Minutes

You know that there are twenty-four (24) hours in a day. Twelve of those hours are in the a.m. and twelve are in the p.m. It's nice to know about hours, but the world needed a smaller division of time. We needed minutes. There are sixty (60) minutes in each hour. The value of sixty has its origins in the Babylonian counting system. They had a system that worked with a base of sixty. If we created time today, there is a chance we would have one hundred (100) smaller minutes for each hour.

When you look at the face of a clock, you will see the major division for the hours. There are also smaller notches that represent the minutes. You will find four notches between each hour division. There are also quick ways of telling someone the number of minutes. You could say "Four forty-five" or the faster way… "A quarter to five." Here are some of the abbreviations:

Quarter After: Fifteen minutes past the hour. (Quarter after three = 3:15)
Half Past: Thirty minutes past the hour. (Half past four = 4:30)
Quarter To: Fifteen minutes before the next hour. (Quarter to eight = 7:45)

Minutes Used Every Day

The standard scientific unit for measuring time is the second. Minutes are usually used to measure slower events. You will probably use minutes to measure the length of your television shows. There are thirty (30) minute, sixty (60) minute, and two-hour (120 minute) shows on every night. The next place you will use minutes is in school. Every school has a different schedule, but your days are probably broken down to the very minute with class time, lunch, and breaks. Knowing how to count minutes is very important when you have a schedule. After home and school, your parents are very familiar with minutes at work. They may measure tasks and projects down to the minute. One day they might spend thirty-five minutes on one project and fifteen on another. They need to keep daily records of their time and they always use minutes.

Details to Remember

- There are 60 seconds in each minute.
- There are 60 minutes in each hour.

RELATED ACTIVITIES

Counting the Number of Minutes that have Passed
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"How Much Time has Passed?" in Fifteen Minute Amounts
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