Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Why is a minute divided up into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 minutes, and only 24 hours in a day?

Published

Author(s)

Michael A. Lombardi

Abstract

An overview on the historical origins of the units of time interval, written for the "Ask the Experts" feature in Scientific American.
Citation
Scientific American

Keywords

clocks, time, time interval, timekeeping

Citation

Lombardi, M. (2007), Why is a minute divided up into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 minutes, and only 24 hours in a day?, Scientific American, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=50491 (Accessed December 30, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created March 3, 2007, Updated January 27, 2020