Mathwords logoMathwords

Hour — Definition, Formula & Examples

An hour is a unit of time equal to 60 minutes. There are 24 hours in one full day.

An hour is a standard unit of time measurement defined as exactly 60 minutes or 3,600 seconds, with one complete day comprising 24 consecutive hours.

Key Formula

1 hour=60 minutes=3,600 seconds1 \text{ hour} = 60 \text{ minutes} = 3{,}600 \text{ seconds}
Where:

    How It Works

    You use hours to measure longer stretches of time, like how long you sleep or how long a school day lasts. To convert hours to minutes, multiply by 60. To convert minutes back to hours, divide by 60. When a time includes both hours and leftover minutes, you write it in mixed form, such as 2 hours and 15 minutes.

    Worked Example

    Problem: A movie is 150 minutes long. How many hours and minutes is that?
    Step 1: Divide the total minutes by 60 to find the whole hours.
    150÷60=2 remainder 30150 \div 60 = 2 \text{ remainder } 30
    Step 2: The quotient is the number of full hours, and the remainder is the leftover minutes.
    150 minutes=2 hours and 30 minutes150 \text{ minutes} = 2 \text{ hours and } 30 \text{ minutes}
    Answer: The movie is 2 hours and 30 minutes long.

    Why It Matters

    Reading clocks, planning schedules, and solving elapsed-time problems all require understanding hours. In science class, you often record experiment durations in hours and minutes, so converting between these units is a skill you will use repeatedly.

    Common Mistakes

    Mistake: Assuming there are 100 minutes in an hour because of the decimal system.
    Correction: Time does not follow base 10. One hour is always 60 minutes, so 1.5 hours equals 90 minutes, not 150.