AC66-2.

1A
MATHEMATICS & PHYSICS

Topic 2. Measurement
Sub-topic: 2.1 International system (SI) of
measurement (Time)
 Time
 Time units cause problems because conversions are not based on powers of tens,
or in other words, time is not a decimal system.
 Units of time include secs, min, hours, days, weeks, etc. Stopwatches will work in
smaller units, usually mins, secs and hundredths of seconds (or centiseconds). A
stopwatch reading of 20:31:90 means 20 minutes, 31seconds and 90 hundredths
of a second.
 Notice that a colon (:) is used to separate the different units to avoid confusion
with decimal points.
 Metric prefixes can be used with seconds. The most common prefixes are
milliseconds, microseconds, nanoseconds and possibly picoseconds, the prefixes
having the same meaning as in the introduction material.
 The unit conversions for time are:

Example 1: Change 180 minutes to hours.

The conversion to be used is 60 minutes = 1 hour.
 Example 2: Change 2 mins 41 seconds to seconds.

The conversion to be used is 60 seconds = 1 minute.

Note: 2 mins 41 seconds cannot be written as 2.41 mins.
The method is to convert 2 mins to seconds and then add on the 41 seconds.

i.e. 2 mins = 2 x 60 seconds = 120 seconds

2 mins 41 seconds = 120 seconds + 41 seconds
= 161 seconds.

 Example 3: Change 180 minutes to hours.

The conversion to be used is 60 minutes = 1 hour.
 Example 4: Change 252 minutes to hours (and hours and mins)
The conversion to be used is 60 minutes = 1 hour.
 Example:
If a car is moving at a speed of 60km/hr, how long will it take (in hours and mins)
to cover 75 km?

60km/hr

This means 1 hour and 0.25 of an hour. It is not 25 mins. To change this into hours
and minutes,
0.25 of an hour
= 0.25 of 60 minutes
= 15 minutes

The car will take 1 hour and 15 mins to cover 75 km.

END OF PRESENTATION ON

Topic 2. Measurement
Sub-topic: Time