Converting Time Difference to Minutes: A Problem for Idiots

[King]

Hey all,

I have a quick question about converting a difference between 2 times into minutes.
I am modelling a 24 hour clock. The time 900 represents the time 09:00 and 1500 represents the time 15:00. If I subtract the two I get a difference of 600. If I want to convert this to minutes I would write (600/100)*60. There's my answer, but I can't seem to get my head round what (600/100) is doing. Why do I need to divide it by 100?

This question was brought to you by an idiot.

 

[Lord Crc]

Because you represent hours as "hours*100", so to get "hours" back you need to divide by 100.

 

[Cvan]

12 and 24 hour clocks use the format: HH:MM, where H is an hour digit and M is a minute digit. Don't subtract the two times like that.
15:00 - 09:00 = 6:00
Six hours.
There's 60 minutes in an hour, so multiply this by 60 minutes per hour.

$$6 hour*\frac{60 minute}{1 hour} = 360 minutes$$

You don't need to divide by 100.

Let's say you were looking at the difference between 7:00 and 8:45. Since there's 60 minutes in an hour, you can look at it like this.

You need 60 minutes to reach 8:00 from 7:00. Then you need an additional 45 minutes to reach 8:45.

Look at the difference between 7:00 and 10:30 now.
You need 3 hours (10-7) and 30 minutes (30-0) to reach the end time. To get this into minutes, just multiply the 3 hours by 60 minutes per hour = (180 minutes), and add to 30 minutes to obtain 210 minutes.

Hope this helps. Remember, there are no stupid questions; only answers can be stupid.

 

[King]

Thanks a lot for the answers. Makes sense now

The reason I had to do it like that however is for computer programming. Unfortunately coding a program to understand HH:MM is more complicated than doing HHMM-HHMM, though the former is so much easier to do in our heads

 

[CellCoree]

Hello,

First of all, I would like to address the language used in the title of this content. It is not appropriate or respectful to label oneself or others as "idiots." We are all capable individuals, and it is important to approach learning and problem-solving with a positive and growth mindset.

Now, to address the question at hand. Converting time difference to minutes involves understanding the units of time being used. In this case, 900 and 1500 represent military or 24-hour time, where the first two digits represent the hour and the last two digits represent the minutes. Therefore, the difference of 600 between the two times is in units of hours.

To convert this to minutes, we need to multiply it by 60, since there are 60 minutes in one hour. However, we cannot simply multiply 600 by 60, as that would give us 36,000 minutes, which is not the correct answer. This is where dividing by 100 comes in.

Dividing 600 by 100 gives us 6, which represents the number of hours in the time difference. Then, by multiplying 6 by 60, we get the correct answer of 360 minutes. This is because dividing by 100 essentially moves the decimal point two places to the left, converting the units from hours to minutes.

In summary, dividing by 100 is necessary because we are converting from hours to minutes, and the conversion factor between these two units is 60 minutes per hour. I hope this helps clarify the concept for you. Remember, there are no "idiots" when it comes to learning and understanding new concepts. Keep asking questions and seeking knowledge.