Minutes and Hours Converter
This converter allows you to calculate the number of hours expressed in minutes or the number of minutes expressed in hours.
In order to use this converter, first select the unit you want to be converting from (minutes or hours) and then select the unit you want to be converting to (also minutes or hours).
Write down the value of the unit you are converting, and choose the number of decimal spaces you want your result to be rounded to (or do not select any and you will receive a decimal number with up to 15 decimal spaces if needed).
Once all the parameters are selected, click on CONVERT.
Your result will appear below the converter including the ratio between the two units that were applied. This ratio is important when trying to figure out how to perform the same calculations as the converter manually.
Converting Hours and Minutes Manually
In order to convert efficiently between hours and minutes, we must first establish the ratios between them.
One Hour Expressed in Minutes
We will start with the simpler ratio, where we express one hour as a number of minutes. As we all know, 1 hour equals 60 minutes.
Here we can simply express the ratio of hours to minutes as 1:60, meaning that one hour equals 60 minutes.
One Minute Expressed in Hours
In order to figure out this ratio, we will divide 1 by 60 and get 1÷60 = 0.0167 rounded to three significant figures.
Hence, the ratio of minutes to hours is expressed as 1:0.0167, meaning one minute equals about 0.0167 of an hour.
EXAMPLE 1 Converting Hours into Minutes
A movie is 1.7 hours long. How many minutes is that, rounded to the nearest minute?
Using the ratio calculated before, we multiply the 1.7 hours by 60 and get 1.7×60 = 102 minutes.
EXAMPLE 2 Converting Minutes into Hours
A train ride lasted 226 minutes. How many hours was it? Round your answer to 3 significant figures.
We multiply 226 minutes by 0.0167 and get 226×0.0167 = 3.77 hours rounded to 3 significant figures.
Scientific Hours
Did you know that there is the common hour, which has 3,600 seconds, and then there is the scientific hour, which can be longer or shorter than 3,600 seconds, depending on the definition?
The reason for this is, that for the sake of society working efficiently, we had to agree on a unified time frame. However, the hour itself is simply defined as 1 day divided by 24.
One type of a full day has a little over 24 hours, more exactly 24 hours, 3 minutes, and 57 seconds on average, where the little extra time on top adds up to the inaccuracy. Some days are longer and some are shorter, in scientific terms, as a day is completed once Sun reaches the exact same position in the sky as it did the day before. These discrepancies are caused by a variety of factors like tides, positions of the moon, and some other gravitational pulls affecting our planet. Due to this increased duration, the actual hour can take up to 10 seconds longer than it should.
The problem with exact hours becomes even more tedious, once we find out that there is another kind of a day called the sidereal day. This day is completed once the Earth does a full 360-degree rotation around its own axis. This day is a little shorter than the usual 24-hour day, more exactly it is 23 hours and 56 minutes long. If you would try to calculate one hour out of this day, you will find that it lasts about 10 seconds less than it should.