Year 5 Math Notes: Time Measurement
Understanding Time
Time is a way to measure the passing of events. We use units like
seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years.
1. Seconds: The smallest unit of time we commonly use. There are 60
seconds in a minute.
2. Minutes: There are 60 minutes in an hour.
3. Hours: There are 24 hours in a day.
4. Days: There are 7 days in a week.
5. Weeks: There are about 4 weeks in a month.
6. Months: There are 12 months in a year.
7. Years: A year is 365 days, or 366 days in a leap year.
Reading Clocks
We use clocks to tell time. There are two types of clocks: analog and
digital.
Analog Clocks: These have an hour hand, a minute hand, and sometimes
a second hand. The numbers 1 to 12 are arranged in a circle.
1. The short hand shows the hour.
2. The long hand shows the minutes.
3. The second hand shows the seconds.
Digital Clocks: These show time with numbers. For example, 3:45 means 3
hours and 45 minutes.
Calculating Elapsed Time
Elapsed time is the amount of time that has passed between two events.
To calculate elapsed time:
1. Write down the start time and end time.
2. Count the hours between the start and end time.
3. Count the minutes between the start and end time.
4. Combine the hours and minutes to find the total elapsed time.
Example: If a movie starts at 2:30 PM and ends at 4:00 PM, the elapsed
time is 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Real-Life Applications
Understanding time helps us in many ways:
1. Daily Schedule: Knowing what time it is helps us plan our day.
2. Cooking: Recipes often tell us how long to cook something.
3. Travel: We need to know the time to catch buses, trains, or flights.
4. Sports: Games and races are timed.
Practice Problems
1. What time will it be 3 hours after 1:00 PM?
2. How many minutes are there between 2:15 PM and 3:00 PM?
3. If a show starts at 6:45 PM and ends at 8:00 PM, how long is the show
This means
1 day = 24 hours
1 hour = 60
minutes 1 minute
= 60 seconds
A.M. and P.M.
• The time from 12:00 midnight to 12:00 noon is indicated by a.m. (ante
meridiem).
• The time from 12:00 noon to 12:00 midnight is indicated by p.m. (post
meridiem).
Time measurement for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 45
minutes can be represented as follows.
Quarter to - This means there are 15 minutes remaining
to complete the given hour. For e.g., 02:45 means, there
are 15 minutes to reach 3:00. This is read as "quarter to
three".
Quarter past - This means 15 minutes have passed after the hour has
started. For e.g., 04:15 means, 15 minutes have passed after 4:00. This is
read as "quarter past four".
Half-past - This means 30 minutes have passed after the hour has started.
For e.g., 06:30 means, 30 minutes have passed after 6:00. This is read as
"half-past six".
Reading Time to the Exact Minute
A clock has 12 sections. Each number denotes an hour.
There are three hands in a clock, the hour hand, the minute hand, and the
second hand.
The small hand is the hour hand and the hand bigger than the hour hand
is the minute hand, and the hand that moves relatively quicker than the
other two hands is the second hand or sweep.
• When the hour hand moves from one number to another, 1 hour
passes.
• When the minute hand moves from one number to another, 5 minutes
pass.
• Small divisions between any two consecutive numbers represent 1
minute each.
• When the minute hand moves from one small division to the next small
division, 1 minute passes.
• When the minute hand completes one full circle, 60 minutes (1 hour)
pass.
Here is a table that shows the minutes indicated by the numbers on a
clock.
Numbers Minutes
1 indicates 5 minutes
2 indicates 10 minutes
3 indicates 15 minutes
4 indicates 20 minutes
5 indicates 25 minutes
6 indicates 30 minutes
7 indicates 35 minutes
8 indicates 40 minutes
9 indicates 45 minutes
10 indicates 50 minutes
11 indicates 55 minutes
12 indicates 60 minutes or 00 minutes
Now, let’s see an e.g., to read time from a clock.
In the clock given above, the hour
hand is between 2 and 3 so it is for
2 hours. The minute hand is at 4. So,
it is 4 x 5 minutes = 20 minutes. So,
the time is 2 hours 20 minutes
(02:20).
