Question

What fraction of an hour is 20 minutes?

Answer 1

Hint: we will first convert an hour into minutes because we have to find the fraction of an hour which is 20 minutes. So, both quantities must be in the same unit. 1 hour is equal to 60 minutes. Then, to find the fraction we will be taking 20 minutes in numerator and 1 hour in denominator.

Complete step by step answer:
We will convert hours into minutes. We know that 1 hour contains 60 minutes. So, we will multiply the hour by 60.
1 hour = \[1 \times 60\] $ \Rightarrow 60$minutes.
Now, to find the fraction we have to divide them. So, we will keep 20 minutes in denominator and 60 minutes (1 hour) in denominator. We could also keep 60 minutes in the denominator and 20 minutes in the numerator but we are not doing this because in the like fraction numerator is always less than the denominator.
Fraction $ = \dfrac{{20}}{{60}}$
Now, we will reduce them to their lowest terms. And we get,
$ = \dfrac{1}{3}$
So, the fraction of an hour to 20 minutes is 1/3.

Note:
Fraction is used to represent the part of a whole thing. Digits in fraction must be in the same unit. It is not necessary that we always convert hour into minute, we can also convert minute into hour. To convert hour into minute we multiply the term by 60 but when we convert minute into hour we have to divide the term by 60. In this case we converted hour into minute because that makes that calculation way more easier.