What decimal of a day is a minute?

Appeared in: DSSSB - 29 August 2019 (Shift-2)

Explanation

A day contains 24 hours, and each hour has 60 minutes. Therefore, one day has a total of 24 × 60 = 1,440 minutes.
To find what decimal of a day a single minute represents, you set up the fraction 1/1440.
Performing the division gives 1 ÷ 1,440 = 0.0006944...
When this result is rounded to five decimal places, it becomes 0.00069, matching the provided option.

Option A: This value is too low. The decimal 0.00062 corresponds to approximately 0.89 minutes (0.00062 × 1440), not a full minute.
Option C: This value is too high. The decimal 0.00072 corresponds to approximately 1.04 minutes (0.00072 × 1440), not exactly one minute.
Option D: This value is significantly too low. The decimal 0.00058 corresponds to approximately 0.84 minutes (0.00058 × 1440).

Clinical Relevance

Nursing practice connection: This is primarily an exam-oriented knowledge point with limited direct bedside application, so retain Conversion of time units (minutes to days) and their decimal representation as background academic context rather than a clinical decision trigger.
Accurate time conversion is essential for medication administration schedules, especially for drugs that require precise timing intervals to maintain therapeutic levels.
In critical care, calculating infusion rates for IV drips often involves converting hours and minutes to ensure the correct dosage is delivered over a specific period.
What if? If a nurse miscalculated a 12-hour infusion using the wrong decimal (e.g., 0.00072 instead of 0.00069 per minute), the total infusion time would be off, potentially leading to under or over-infusion and affecting patient outcomes.

How to Approach the Question

First, identify the units you need to convert: from 'minutes' to 'days'.
Determine the relationship between the units. Start by breaking down the larger unit (day) into smaller parts.
Recall or calculate that 1 day has 24 hours.
Recall or calculate that 1 hour has 60 minutes.
Calculate the total number of minutes in one day: 24 hours × 60 minutes/hour = 1,440 minutes.
Set up a fraction to represent one minute as part of a day: 1/1440.

Concept Tested & Keywords

Concept Tested: Conversion of time units (minutes to days) and their decimal representation.
Stem keywords: decimal, day, minute
Lead-in keywords: What

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