How many seconds make up one minute?

How many seconds make up one minute?

• A. 60
• B. 30
• C. 120
• D. 90

Answer: (A)

A minute is defined as sixty seconds, because time is divided into hours, minutes, and seconds and this unitization uses a base-60 system. That base-60 scheme makes many common fractions of a minute easy to express, like half a minute, a quarter of a minute, and so on. So sixty seconds fit neatly into one minute, and also into longer periods (an hour has 3600 seconds). The other choices would correspond to half a minute, two minutes, or one and a half minutes, which are not how a minute is defined.

A minute is defined as sixty seconds, because time is divided into hours, minutes, and seconds and this unitization uses a base-60 system. That base-60 scheme makes many common fractions of a minute easy to express, like half a minute, a quarter of a minute, and so on. So sixty seconds fit neatly into one minute, and also into longer periods (an hour has 3600 seconds). The other choices would correspond to half a minute, two minutes, or one and a half minutes, which are not how a minute is defined.