Notes for Homework 3

Notes for time given in decimal form

On Earth, a years is actually 365.2422 days. We make up the extra number by having a leap year every four years, with a few exceptions. How long is 0.2422 days in hours minutes and seconds?

Decimal days to hours, minutes and seconds:  To get the number of hours, we multiply 0.2422x24 = 5.8128 hours, we save the 5, then multiply the 0.8128 x 60 = 48.768, which means we now have 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and some decimal part of a minute. 0.768x60 = 46.08 seconds, which means a year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46.08 seconds.


A day on Saturn is 10.656 Earth hours. How do we change the decimal to hours, minutes and seconds?

Decimal hours to minutes and seconds: Multiply the decimal part by 60. In this case, .656 x 60 = 39.36 minutes. We save the 39 minutes and then multiply .36 x 60 = 21.6. This means the final answer is 10 hours, 39 minutes, 21.6 seconds.

Notes for scientific notation