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What is time?

different measures of time

Our whole life revolves around time. When you are born, you are born on a particular day of a month in a year. The doctor even records what time of day you were born!

At school, there are set times for registration, lunch, breaks and home time.

You might even count the weeks or months until an event.

There are lots of different measures of time: seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years.

different measures of time
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Converting time

It is important to understand the value of these different measures and be able to convert them to find equivalent (equal in value) time intervals.

Here is a handy conversion guide:

AB
60 seconds1 minute
60 minutes1 hour
24 hours1 day
7 days1 week
365 days1 year
52 weeks1 year
Did you know

Every four years we have leap years. Instead of having 365 days, leap years have 366 days.

Did you know

Knowing these facts helps us to convert between the different time intervals.

Let's look at using these conversions to answer some questions.

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Example 1

\( \frac{1}{3} \) of an hour is how many minutes?

Well, there are 60 minutes in an hour. Let鈥檚 break 60 minutes into thirds using a bar model.

60 minutes broken into 20 minute blocks

We can now see that \( \frac{1}{3} \) of an hour is 20 minutes.

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Example 2

How many months are there in 3 years and 4 months?

There are 12 months in one year. So to find the amount of months in 3 years, we have to multiply 12 by 3.

12 x 3 = 36

36 months broken into 12 month blocks.

Now we can just add the remaining 4 months to 36 to find the total.

36 + 4 = 40

So 3 years and 4 months is the same as 40 months.

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Example 3

How many seconds are there in 5 and a half minutes?

There are 60 seconds in a minute. So what is 5 lots of 60 seconds?

60 x 5 = 300

But how many seconds in half a minute? Well, half of 60 is 30.

Now add 300 and 30 together to find the answer.

300 + 30 = 330

So 5 and a half minutes is the same as 330 seconds.

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Activities

Activity 1

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Converting units of time problems

Can you convert these different units of time to find equivalent time intervals?

1. 2 minutes and 50 seconds = ____ seconds.

2. 1 hour and 17 minutes = ____ minutes.

3. 3 weeks and 4 days = ____ days.

4. 8 years and 6 months = ____ months.

5. 2 days and 2 hours = ____ hours.

6. 1 and \( \frac{3}{4} \) hours = ____ minutes.

7. The Henderson family have lived in their house for 744 days. The Abushena family have lived in theirs for 22 months. The Abushena family have lived in their house for longer.

Is this correct? Say why or why not.

A girl thinking

Finished? Check your answers with this .

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Quiz

Time conversions quiz

Test your skills further in finding equivalent time intervals with this quiz!

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NEW! Play Guardians: Defenders of Mathematica - the winter update
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More on Time

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