science

Minute

Minute is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Minute rather than just read about it. In short: A minute (symbol: min) is a unit of time defined as equal to 60 seconds. The prime symbol ′ is also sometimes used informally to denote minutes.

Key takeaways

Minute belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Minute to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Minute from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A minute (symbol: min) is a unit of time defined as equal to 60 seconds. The prime symbol ′ is also sometimes used informally to denote minutes. In the UTC time standard, a minute on rare occasions has 61 seconds, a consequence of leap seconds; there is also a provision to insert a negative leap second, which would result in a 59-second minute, but this has never happened in more than 40 years under this system.

History Al-Biruni first subdivided the hour sexagesimally into minutes, seconds, thirds and fourths in 1000 CE while discussing Jewish months. Historically, the word "minute" comes from the Latin pars minuta prima, meaning "first small part". This division of the hour can be further refined with a "second small part" (Latin: pars minuta secunda), and this is where the word "second" comes from. For even further refinement, the term "third" (1⁄60 of a second) was once used, but most modern usage subdivides seconds by using decimals. The symbol notation of the prime for minutes and double prime for seconds can be seen as indicating the first and second cut of the hour (similar to how the foot is the first cut of the yard or perhaps chain, with inches as the second cut). In 1267, the medieval scientist Roger Bacon, writing in Latin, defined the division of time between full moons as a number of hours, minutes, seconds, thirds, and fourths (horae, minuta, secunda, tertia, and quarta) after noon on specified calendar dates. Jost Bürgi was the first clock maker to include a minute hand on clock for astronomer Tycho Brahe in 1577. The introduction of the minute hand into watches was possible only after the invention of the hairspring by Thomas Tompion, an English watchmaker, in 1675.

See also Clock face International System of Units Latitude and longitude Orders of magnitude (time)

Notes and references

Bibliography Henry Campbell Black, Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Edition, entry on Minute. West Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1991. Eric W. Weisstein. "Arc Minute." From MathWorld – A Wolfram

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Minute

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Minute claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Minute before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Minute ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Minute

In research: Minute appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Minute in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Minute is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Orders of magnitude (time), Units of time, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Minute outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Minute in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Minute means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Minute out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Minute in simple terms?

A minute (symbol: min) is a unit of time defined as equal to 60 seconds. The prime symbol ′ is also sometimes used informally to denote minutes.

Why does Minute matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Minute?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Minute.