Hours to Seconds calculator

Hours to Seconds Conversion Table

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• Hour (1h)

  An hour (symbol: h; also abbreviated hr.) is a unit of time conventionally reckoned as 1⁄24 of a day and scientifically reckoned as 3,599–3,601 seconds, depending on conditions. The seasonal, temporal, or unequal hour was established in the ancient Near East as 1⁄12 of the night or daytime. Such hours varied by season, latitude, and weather. It was subsequently divided into 60 minutes, each of 60 seconds. Its East Asian equivalent was the shi, which was 1⁄12 of the apparent solar day; a similar system was eventually developed in Europe which measured its equal or equinoctial hour as 1⁄24 of such days measured from noon to noon. The minor variations of this unit were eventually smoothed by making it 1⁄24 of the mean solar day, based on the measure of the sun's transit along the celestial equator rather than along the ecliptic. This was finally abandoned due to the minor slowing caused by the Earth's tidal deceleration by the Moon.

• Second (0.00027777h)

  The second is the SI base unit of time, commonly understood and historically defined as 1⁄86400 of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each. Another intuitive understanding is that it is about the time between beats of a human heart. Mechanical and electric clocks and watches usually have a face with 60 tickmarks representing seconds and minutes, traversed by a second hand and minute hand. Digital clocks and watches often have a two-digit counter that cycles through seconds. In common parlance, a "clock tick" is a second, though most modern clocks are digital electronic, and do not actually tick. The second is also part of several other units of measurement like velocity, acceleration, and frequency. Though the historical definition of the unit was based upon this division of the Earth's rotation cycle, the formal definition in the International System of Units SI is a much steadier timekeeper: 1 second is defined to be exactly 9 192 631 770 cycles of a Caesium atomic clock. Because the Earth's rotation varies and is also slowing ever so slightly, a leap second is added to clock time to keep clocks in sync with Earth's rotation.