Video Transcript
James can stay under the water for
one what. One hour or one minute?
You know, in maths, whenever we
measure something, whether it’s how tall something is or how heavy or like in this
question how long something takes, we don’t just give a number. We have to also have a unit of
measurement. So in other words, we can’t just
say James can stay under water for one because it doesn’t make sense. We’d want to say one what. And that’s why this question is all
about choosing the right unit of measurement to finish off our sentence.
Can james stay under the water for
one hour or one minute? Now, it doesn’t really matter
whether we know James at all. This question is all about thinking
about which one of these units of measurement makes most sense. To help us, let’s think about how
long an hour is and how long a minute is. What do we know about an hour? One hour is the length of time it
takes the minute hand on a clock face to go all the way around once. You can think of all the things you
can get done in one lesson at school. That’s about an hour long. In fact, we could use this to help
us. Because if we can imagine that
James is having a swimming lesson, do you think he can stay under the water for the
whole swimming lesson? I don’t think so, do you?
Now, we know that one minute is the
length of time it takes the minute hand on a clock face to move one little
notch. It’s the same as 60 seconds. So if we counted from one to 60,
that’s about a minute. So which of these units of
measurement makes most sense? Do you think James can stay under
the water for a whole swimming lesson or for the length of time it takes to count
from one to 60? I think it’s the second answer,
don’t you? James can stay under the water for
one minute.
