Time Conversions

Tom is waiting for his best friend's birthday. He wants to know the number of days left for his friend's birthday. His birthday is after 1 month and 3 days from today. Today's date is 31st october, 2013.

Let's look for the calendar to know the number of days left for his friend's birthday.

Count the number of days starting from 31st october up to 1 month 3 days.

So, 33 days left for Tom's best friend's birthday.

We can convert between different units of time to make our calculations simpler.

There are different units of time:

Note: When we do conversions we simply break them up into smaller parts and do one conversion at a time. So, to convert from seconds to hours, we convert seconds to minutes and then minutes to hours. To convert days to months we can convert to weeks first, and then convert weeks to months.

Example 1

It rained for 3 weeks continuously, how many days did it rain for?

Solution

1 week = 7 days

3 weeks = 3 x 7 days

3 weeks = 21 days

So, it rained for 21 days continuously.

Example 2

A mother tells you that her baby is 6 months old. About how many weeks old is the baby?

Solution

1 month is about 4 weeks.

6 months = 6 x 4 weeks

6 months = 24 weeks

So, the baby is about 24 weeks old.

Example 3

How many days are there in 3 years (assuming a leap year does not occur in that time)?

Solution

1 year = 365 days

3 years = 3 x 365 days

There are 1095 days in 3 years.

Example 3

Second Grade learners have to study for 2 years to get to Fourth Grade.

(i) How many months do they have to study for?

(ii) How many days do they have to study for?

Solution

1 year = 12 months

2 years = 2 x 12 months

So, second grade learners have to study for 24 months to get to fourth grade.

1 year = 12 months = 52 weeks = 365 days

2 years = 2 x 365 days

So, second grade learners have to study for 730 days to get to fourth grade.