How Many Minutes Between Two Times? Calculate Time Duration Easily

Calculating the duration between two different times can sometimes be confusing, especially when you need to know the exact number of minutes. Whether you’re planning a meeting, tracking work hours, or just curious about the time elapsed, understanding how to calculate time duration is a useful skill. This article will guide you through using a time duration calculator and explain the manual method to find out precisely How Many Minutes are between two moments.

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You can use the simple calculator below to quickly determine the hours, minutes, and seconds between two points in time.

Time Between Two Dates

If you need to calculate the duration across two different dates, this time and date duration calculator is perfect for finding the days, hours, minutes, and even seconds between two specific times on separate dates. For tasks like adding or subtracting time from a specific date, you might find our Time Calculator more helpful.

Related tools: Date Calculator | Time Calculator | Age Calculator

Calculating Time Duration Manually, Focusing on Minutes

While online calculators are incredibly convenient, understanding the manual method can give you a deeper grasp of time calculations. Let’s break down how to calculate the duration between two times within the same day, specifically focusing on getting the result in minutes and hours.

1. Identify Start and End Times: First, clearly define your starting time and your ending time. The goal is to subtract the starting time from the ending time to find the duration.

2. Convert to 24-Hour Format (If Necessary): If your times are in AM/PM format, converting them to 24-hour format simplifies the subtraction process, especially when crossing noon or midnight. Remember, AM hours remain the same in 24-hour format. For PM hours, simply add 12 to the hour. For instance, 3:00 PM becomes 15:00 in 24-hour time.

3. Minute Comparison is Key: The trickiest part is handling the minutes. We need to see if the number of minutes in the ending time is greater than or less than the minutes in the starting time.

   • Ending Time Minutes are Greater: If the ending time has more minutes than the starting time, you can subtract directly. Keep the hours and minutes separate, subtracting minutes from minutes and hours from hours. For example, let’s calculate the time difference between 9:15 AM and 11:40 AM. In 24-hour format, this is 09:15 and 11:40.

      11:40
    - 09:15
    -------
      02:25

   This means the duration is 2 hours and 25 minutes. To find out how many minutes this is in total, we calculate (2 hours * 60 minutes/hour) + 25 minutes = 145 minutes.

   • Starting Time Minutes are Greater: This is where it gets slightly more complex. If the starting time has more minutes, you need to “borrow” an hour from the ending time. Let’s say we want to find the duration between 2:50 PM and 5:10 PM. In 24-hour format, these are 14:50 and 17:10.

   Since 50 minutes (starting time) is greater than 10 minutes (ending time), we need to adjust. We borrow 1 hour (60 minutes) from the hour part of the ending time (17 hours), reducing it to 16 hours and adding the borrowed 60 minutes to the 10 minutes, making it 70 minutes.

      17:10  becomes  16:70  (borrowing an hour)
    - 14:50           14:50
    -------         -------
                    02:20

   So, the duration is 2 hours and 20 minutes. In total minutes, this is (2 hours * 60 minutes/hour) + 20 minutes = 140 minutes.

   Let’s take another example from the original article: 13:57 minus 9:58.

      13:57
    - 9:58

   Here, 58 minutes (starting time conceptually in subtraction) is greater than 57 minutes (ending time conceptually in subtraction). So, we borrow an hour from 13, making it 12, and add 60 minutes to 57 minutes, resulting in 117 minutes.

      13:57  becomes  12:117
    - 09:58           09:58
    -------         -------
                    03:59

   The duration is 3 hours and 59 minutes. In minutes, this is (3 hours * 60 minutes/hour) + 59 minutes = 239 minutes.

   Alt text: Time duration calculator interface showing input fields for start and end times, emphasizing ease of use for calculating time differences.

Why Calculate in Minutes?

Understanding how many minutes are in a time duration is often more practical than just knowing hours and minutes. For instance, when scheduling meetings, knowing the duration in minutes helps in precise time management. In project management, tracking task durations in minutes can provide a granular view of time spent. For billing hourly services, converting the duration to total minutes can simplify calculations and ensure accuracy. Even in everyday situations, like cooking or exercising, knowing the exact minute-based duration can be more useful.

Conclusion

Calculating the duration between two times, especially focusing on how many minutes have passed, can be easily done with a time duration calculator. However, understanding the manual method provides valuable insight and reinforces your understanding of time. Whether you use a tool or calculate manually, knowing how to find the time duration in minutes is a practical skill for many situations.