Second | Meaning & Concept [Explained]

We explain what a second is in the measurement of time, how long it lasts and the history of its definition. Also, how long is a minute?

second half — As they follow one another, the seconds form minutes and hours.

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What is a second?

It is called second to the base unit for measuring time of the International System of Units (YEAH). This unit also shared with the Cegesimal System of Units and the Technical System of Units.

It is represented by the letter s (without a period or capital letter, as it is not an abbreviation). The incorrect use of sec., sec either s. as abbreviations, none of which are formally accepted.

According to the International System, the seconds can be divided into smaller units, such as the millisecond (ms) equivalent to 10^-3 seconds; the microsecond (μs) equivalent to 10^-6 seconds and the nanosecond (ns) equivalent to 10^-9 seconds, just to name its three best-known submultiples.

There are also ascending multiples such as decaseconds (days) or hectoseconds (hs), but generally for those cases it is preferable to use larger time units, such as minutes.

History of the second

The ancient Romans were the first to divide hours into minutes and seconds that's why these words come from Latin. They divided each hour into 60 smaller portions that they called pars minute prima or “first small part”, from which the term was imposed minute.

In turn, they divided the minutes into 60 again, which were logically called pars minuteta secunda or “second small part”, which ended up being called “second”. Ultimately, the name of the second comes from Latin follow “continue”.

To this we should add the Hebrew heritage in Western culture, whose fervor for the number twelve (12) as a sacred number led them to divide the hours of the day in this way, from sunrise to sunset, a consideration that is still used today. in day. Thus, each of the twelve hours has 60 minutes and these in turn have 60 seconds, which means that in an hour there are 3600 seconds.

You may be interested: Theoretical Framework

How long is a second?

The definition of what a second is comes from centuries past, and was subject to debate and inaccuracies until it was defined as one eighty-six thousand four hundredth (1/86,400) of a mean solar day between 1750 and 1890. This seemed to settle the issue with an acceptable margin of error.

However, in 1967 the need for even more exact measurements imposed a redefinition, no longer based on astronomical time but on atomic time. Thus, today we understand that one second has the duration of 9,192,631,770 oscillations of the radiation emitted by the isotope 133 of cesium (¹³³Cs) at a temperature of 0 degrees Kelvin (0 K).

How long is a minute?

According to the International System, One minute is exactly 60 seconds long. that is, according to atomic time, of 551,557,906,200 oscillations of the radiation of a cesium 133 atom at 0 degrees kelvin.

How many hours and minutes are there in a year?

Extending the figures handled previously to a whole year of time, we will have that this represents 525,600 minutes, equivalent to 8760 hours . These figures correspond to a “typical” or average year, given that not all years are exactly identical in size.