How Long Is 300 Hours (And Why)?

How Long Is 300 Hours (And Why)?

Exact Answer: 12.5 Days

People say that three hundred hours is sufficient to learn a new skill or crack an exam. While three hundred hours might seem like a long time, in actuality, it is only 12.5 days, a little less than two weeks. Therefore, one can learn a new skill like coding by simply spending 3 hours every day for 12 weeks or three months studying. 

It can be difficult for the mind to believe that three hundred hours which is quite a large number, is only 12 days. One can attribute this to the ancient time conversions that humans still follow. 

How Long Is 300 Hours

How Long Is 300 Hours?

Different Units For Measuring Three Hundred HoursMeasurements
Seconds1,080,000 seconds
Minutes18000 minutes
Days12 and a half days
Weeks1.785 weeks

One can understand the length of 300 hours in seconds, minutes, days, and weeks. 

Three hundred hours when converted is 1,080,000 seconds. In minutes it is 18000 minutes. Three hundred hours is about 12 and a half days and 1.785 weeks. 

One can calculate the length of three hundred hours using the standard time conversion formulas. They are as follows,

One minute is 60 seconds,

One hour is 60 minutes,

One day is 24 hours, and 

One week is seven days. 

Ancient Egyptian, Sumer, and Babylonian civilizations determined the conversions that we still use to date. Their knowledge then spread throughout the world as people migrated and kings moved to conquer new lands. 

Why Are 300 Hours So Long?

To understand why these time conversions came into practice, one must look at how ancient civilizations determined the time. 

The use of 60 began with the Sumerians and Babylonians. In Sumer, individuals used base 12 and base 60 in the number system as they used the three segments of each finger to count. The hypothesis is that 60 arose from using the twelve segments with five fingers on the other hand. This number system was in use as early as 3500 BC.

The Babylonians determined the subdivisions of a minute and an hour using the Sumerian number system. They used a sexagesimal counting system for mathematics and astronomy, allowing them to make complex calculations. Hence, deriving that one minute is 60 seconds and one hour is 60 minutes. The Babylonians also determined that 360 divisions make a circle, something people use even in the present. The conquests of Alexander the great helped spread the Babylonian number system to India and Greece. 

The present use of 24 hour days comes from ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians had a system of 36-star groups, known as the Decans. These groups were such that on any night, each group rose 40 minutes after the previous one. The Egyptians determined time at day and night using these Decans, which were measured using shadow clocks. The clocks divided day and night as two 12 hour segments., thus, making 24 hours a day. 

The Babylonians were the ones who came up with the seven-day-a-week system. They believed that seven had a mystical significance. Scientists believe that this belief arose from their focus on astronomy and the seven heavenly bodies known at the time- Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. The routine to perform rituals every seven days may have also given rise to the seven-day week. 

The development of the seven-day week is also visible in the creation story of the Bible. The Book of Genesis states that God created the world and everything in it in six days and then rested on the seventh day. People believe that this prompted early cultures to work for six days and relax on the seventh. Apart from the workweeks becoming five days, the concept people follow in the present remains the same.

Conclusion

There are several theories as to how and why the time conversion system came into use. However, historians give credit to the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Babylonians for it. Their curiosity and knowledge gave rise to the time conversion system, which humans still follow today. 

Using that conversion system, one can determine the length of 300 hours as 1,080,000 seconds, 18000 minutes, 12 and a half days, and 1.785 weeks.

References 

  1. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ793979
  2. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rsta.1974.0009
  3. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41133240
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