Video Transcript
One-third of an hour equals what minutes?
When we tell the time, there are different fractions of the hour that we use. For example, we know that half of an hour is worth 30 minutes. How do we actually know this though? Is this something we’re taught or is there a way to work this out?
We know that one hour is worth 60 minutes. So, for example, to find half of that hour, we need to divide 60 minutes by two, which is where we get the answer 30 from. We don’t usually use a third of an hour when telling the time, but let’s use this same method to help us to find the number of minutes in one-third of an hour.
To find one-third of something, we divide it by three. So, what is 60 minutes divided by three? Here’s where we can use a known fact to help us. Six divided by three equals two. And so, six 10s, or 60, divided by three will give us an answer 10 times as large. So, the answer’s 20.
One-third of 60 equals 20. And so, one-third of an hour is worth five, 10, 15, 20 minutes. Although we don’t use one-third of an hour when telling the time, we can still use our knowledge of fractions to help find the answer. To find a third of an hour, we divided 60 by three. One-third of an hour equals 20 minutes.