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Hour

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

An animated analog clock showing the movement of the hour and minute hands.

What is an Hour?

An hour is a way we measure time. It is like a big bucket that holds 60 smaller buckets called minutes. And each minute has 60 tiny little buckets called seconds! One hour is exactly 3,600 seconds.

Where Did Hours Come From?

A long time ago, people in ancient Near East started thinking about hours. At first, an hour was a little bit different every day. It was 1⁄12 of the night or the daytime. This meant the hours changed with the season.

How We Use Hours Today

Now, we all use the same size hour. One hour is 1⁄24 of a whole day. We use hours to tell what time it is. On a 12-hour clock, we might say “ten o’clock” for both morning and night. On a 24-hour clock, we might say “ten hundred” for 10:00 am.

Fun Facts About Hours

  • There are 24 hours in one day.
  • Sometimes, an extra second is added to keep our clocks matching the Earth’s spin. This is called a leap second.
  • Many jobs use hours to decide how long people work. Some places even have “rush hours” when many people travel at the same time.

Images

A replica of an ancient Chinese water clock displayed in Beijing's Drum Tower, showing how time was measured using the flow of water.
An animated digital clock showing the time as one hour on a seven-segment display.
A sundial diagram from St Andrew's parish church in Bishopstone, showing how time was measured using shadows.
An old planispheric astrolabe, a historical scientific instrument used to predict celestial positions.
A sundial showing Italian hours on the Cathedral in Asti, showcasing beautiful architecture and time-telling design.
An ancient Chinese diagram showing the inner workings of a medieval clocktower designed by Su Song in 1092.
An antique marine sandglass used for telling time at sea.
Animation showing how an equatorial sundial marks time by the movement of a shadow throughout the day.
The Horae were goddesses in Greek and Roman mythology who represented the seasons and order of time.
Map showing the International Date Line and the 180th meridian in the Aleutian Islands.

Related articles

Time
Ancient Near East
Night
Earth

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Hour, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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