What is second?
The second is the SI base unit of time. It is used globally in science, engineering, computing, and everyday life, and is the foundation upon which all other time units are built.
Real-world uses
The second is the SI base unit of time, fundamental to all scientific measurement, computing clock cycles, athletic timing, and GPS satellite synchronization. Everyday timekeeping, cooking timers, and traffic light cycles all rely on seconds.
History
The concept of dividing the day into 86,400 parts dates to ancient Babylonian and Egyptian timekeeping. Since 1967, the SI second has been defined as 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation from a caesium-133 atom.
Common mistakes
Assuming a second has always been 1/86,400 of a day. The modern SI second is defined by caesium atom vibrations and is independent of Earth's rotation, which varies slightly due to tidal friction.
What is minute?
A minute is a unit of time equal to 60 seconds. It is universally used for scheduling, cooking, fitness tracking, and expressing short durations in everyday life.
Real-world uses
Minutes structure daily life through meeting schedules, cooking times, exercise intervals, and transportation timetables. Medical professionals measure heart rate in beats per minute and respiratory rate in breaths per minute.
History
The minute comes from the Latin "pars minuta prima" (first small part), referring to the first division of the hour into 60 parts. This sexagesimal division originated with the ancient Babylonians around 2000 BCE.
Common mistakes
Using "m" as an abbreviation for minutes, which conflicts with metres. The correct abbreviation is "min." Also, performing arithmetic on time without accounting for the base-60 system (e.g., 1.5 hours is 1 hour 30 minutes, not 1 hour 50 minutes).
When is this conversion used?
Converting second to minute is useful in the time domain when comparing values across different measurement standards or applying formulas that require a specific unit.
Worked examples
1 second = 0.01666667 minute
1 minute = 60 second
How to convert second to minute
To convert second to minute, multiply the value by 0.01666667.
To convert minute back to second, multiply by 60.
Measurement standards
The SI second is defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom, maintained by the BIPM and national metrology institutes worldwide.
Did you know?
Earth's rotation is gradually slowing due to tidal friction with the Moon. To keep atomic time aligned with solar time, "leap seconds" have been inserted 27 times since 1972 — though they are scheduled to be abolished by 2035.
Quick reference: second to minute
| second | minute |
|---|---|
| 0.1 | 0.00166667 |
| 0.5 | 0.00833333 |
| 1 | 0.01666667 |
| 2 | 0.03333333 |
| 5 | 0.08333333 |
| 10 | 0.16666667 |
| 25 | 0.41666667 |
| 50 | 0.83333333 |
| 100 | 1.66666667 |
| 250 | 4.16666667 |
| 500 | 8.33333333 |
| 1,000 | 16.66666667 |
Common values
| second | minute | |
|---|---|---|
| Blink of an eye | 0.3 second | 0.005 minute |
| Average pop song | 210 second | 3.5 minute |
| Feature film | 7,200 second | 120 minute |
| One work day (8 hrs) | 28,800 second | 480 minute |
| One calendar year | 31,536,000 second | 525,600 minute |
Available Time units
More second conversions
- Convert second to minute
- Convert second to hour
- Convert second to day
- Convert second to week
- Convert second to year (365 d)
- Convert second to millisecond
- Convert second to microsecond
- Convert second to nanosecond
- Convert second to century (100 yr)
Assumption: year is defined as 365 days and century values are approximate.