60 minutes in one hour. 60 seconds in a minute. How many seconds between 2 seconds?

Question

I dont know if im asking this right.

OK how much time is there between seconds? I know 60 seconds to a minute. How small can this get?

Answer 1

The divisions we use come from the Babylonians (thousands of years ago) who counted in a sexagesimal system (based on 60). Before calculator, 60 was a very popular number as it is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20. 360 was even better and was very close to the number of days in a year. Thus circles have 360 degrees.

Today we use a system based on 10: decimal fractions like 3.14159 really mean 3 and 1/10 and 4/100 and 1/1000...

Before the sexagesimal system got to us, it got used extensively by scientist who were writing in Latin. They used it to create fractions of degrees, of hours and of everything else that needed extensive fractions.

The first division of a unit was called "pars minuta prima" (the first small part); the word "minute" (with emphasis on "nu") means "very small" in English, as in: her piece of cake is big while mine is minute.
So, we kept the word "minute" (emphasis on "mi") to indicate the first division. Thee are 60 minutes in a unit (hour or degree).

The second division of the unit was called "pars minuta secunda" (the second small part), from which we kept the word "second"

Some scientists pushed their calculations to the fifth level (pars minuta quinta). We do not use a word, in English, that represents this fifth level of division by 60.

However, your question, I believe, asks what is the division of the second and how many are they. It would be called "pars minuta tertia" and there would be 60 of them in one pars minuta secunda.

However, in modern calculations, we divide the second according to the decimal system (10) and we will write things like The statue is located at latitude 40˚41'21.06"N "
or this event lasted exactly 1h 17m 14.51s.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

One second between second 1 and second 2.

Answer 4

Blame the Babylonians: those blathering bigots got that bloody useless idea. It's got to do with the fact that a year takes 365 days. That's almost 360, and that's 3600 divided by 10, and that's the amount of seconds in an hour.

Answer 5

2 seconds unless this is a trick question.

Answer 6

2 seconds...worded poorly if it is a trick question

Answer 7

You aren't asking it right.