Learning military minutes is a quick and easy process. But a word of warning: don’t use a military minute calculator or you’ll never learn how to calculate military minutes. Here’s how to learn military minutes quickly without an online calculator.
What Is Military Time?
Military time uses a 24-hour clock to avoid mistaking A.M. and P.M. in spoken conversation. In the military, there is no room for error and mistakes so avoiding ambiguity and confusion is important.
A new day starts at midnight or zero hundred hours, written 0000 in military time.
The next hour is 0100, said zero one hundred hours.
At noon it is 1200, said twelve hundred hours.
When 1 pm civilian time (regular time) it becomes 1300, said thirteen hundred hours military time.
And at midnight it becomes the 24th hour of the day, or the first hour of the new day (the intersection where one day meets the next). When considered the last hour of the day it is written 2400 hours, said twenty-four hundred hours. And when considered the first hour of the day it is written 0000 hours, again spoken as zero hundred hours.
Military Time Conversion
Understanding the way a 24-hour clock works is important for understanding how to convert military time. It’s okay to look at a conversion chart but better to be able to decipher what time it is in military time by knowing the civilian time equivalent, and vice versa.
Here’s how to calculate military time from a 12-hour clock to a 24-hour format:
- If it is 4 P.M. on the 12-hour clock just add 4 o’clock + 12-hour clock = 1600 (sixteen hundred hours)
- For 9 P.M. on the 12-hour clock just add 9 o’clock + 12-hour clock = 2100 (twenty-one hundred hours)
- And if it is 4 A.M. on the 12-hour clock just add 4 o’clock + 12-hour clock = 1600 – 1200 hours (since it is AM) = 0400 (zero four hundred hours).
Recommended Reading: Military Time – How to Convert?
[Learn how to convert military time and get a free military time conversion chart]
What Are Military Minutes?
Many people know about military time and how to convert the hours. But most don’t know the minutes must also be converted.
The military does not use the standard 60-seconds to a minute calculation. Instead, the military uses hundredths to calculate intervals of time.
Military Time Minutes Chart
A military time minutes chart can help illustrate military time better. The following military time chart shows the time in military seconds matched to each of the 60-seconds in a standard minute. See the minutes chart below.
Military minutes chart:
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Minutes | Hundredths | Minutes | Hundredths | Minutes | Hundredths | Minutes | Hundredths |
2 | 1 | 0.02 | 16 | 0.27 | 31 | 0.52 | 50 | 0.83 |
3 | 2 | 0.03 | 17 | 0.28 | 32 | 0.53 | 51 | 0.85 |
4 | 3 | 0.05 | 18 | 0.3 | 33 | 0.55 | 52 | 0.87 |
5 | 4 | 0.07 | 19 | 0.32 | 34 | 0.57 | 53 | 0.88 |
6 | 5 | 0.08 | 20 | 0.33 | 35 | 0.58 | 54 | 0.9 |
7 | 6 | 0.1 | 21 | 0.35 | 36 | 0.6 | 55 | 0.92 |
8 | 7 | 0.12 | 22 | 0.37 | 37 | 0.62 | 56 | 0.93 |
9 | 8 | 0.13 | 23 | 0.38 | 38 | 0.63 | 57 | 0.95 |
10 | 9 | 0.15 | 24 | 0.4 | 39 | 0.65 | 58 | 0.97 |
11 | 10 | 0.17 | 25 | 0.42 | 40 | 0.67 | 59 | 0.98 |
12 | 11 | 0.18 | 26 | 0.43 | 41 | 0.68 | 60 | 1 |
13 | 12 | 0.2 | 27 | 0.45 | 42 | 0.7 | ||
14 | 13 | 0.22 | 28 | 0.47 | 43 | 0.72 | ||
15 | 14 | 0.23 | 29 | 0.48 | 44 | 0.73 | ||
16 | 15 | 0.25 | 30 | 0.5 | 45 | 0.75 |
Free Resource: Military Minutes Chart
Benefits of Military Minutes
There are many benefits of military minutes. The main benefit is a more precise calculation of time. In the military precision matters a lot. It can mean the difference between life and death in fact. Here are more benefits of using military minutes to tell time.
More military minute benefits:
- Maths are easier to calculate
- More time to make a decision
- Less time to get stressed
- Easier to read
- More time to get things done
- Simpler to convert into other time units
- Used to calculate payroll hours
How to Calculate Military Time Minutes
To calculate military time minutes from a civilian time minute (standard minutes) divide the number of minutes you want to convert by 60 seconds and round to the hundredth place.
Example 1: Convert 41 standard minutes to military hundredths
41 minutes / 60 seconds = .683
Round down to .68 military minutes
Side Note: When rounding anything five or higher gets rounded up and anything four or less gets rounded down.
Example 2: Convert 13 standard minutes to military hundredths
13 minutes / 60 seconds = .216
Round up to .22 military minutes
Fractional Military Minutes Method
A civilian time minute can serve as a reference point for a fraction of a larger unit of time.
Civilian minutes example (regular time/standard time format):
- 30-seconds is half a civilian time minute
- 15-minutes is a quarter of a civilian time minute
- 45-minutes is 3/4th of a civilian time minute
Note: These are useful reference points to help us keep up with an estimation of the time measured in civilian minutes (regular time/standard time).
The same references civilian minutes (regular time/standard time) reference points apply to military time minutes.
Military time minutes (military standard minutes) example:
- .5 hundredth is half a minute
- .25 hundredth is a quarter of a minute
- .75 hundredth is 3/4th minutes
Note Well: In many ways, it may seem easier to reference military minutes because they correspond to standard math measurements. We think of 100% as being the whole of something. And we mentally fraction parts of that whole in our mind much easier than we fraction 60 into parts.
Final Thought: Military Hours and Minutes
Remember, it’s easy to calculate military time by converting a 12-hour clock to a 24-hour clock by adding 12 to the PM time. Example, 6 PM + 12 o’clock = 1800 hours (eighteen hundred hours). If it is AM time you’re converting just get rid of the colon and add zeros. For example, 5:00 AM becomes 0500 (zero five hundred hours).
You can express time in military minutes by understanding that minutes are turned into hundredths representing a percentage of an hour (n.b., 100 hundredths are in an hour).
To convert minutes into hundredth is an easy conversion. Take the number of minutes and divide it by 60-seconds and round the hundredths place up or down depending on what number is in the thousandth place holder.
For example, 19 minutes / 60-seconds = .266
Round the hundredth place up if the number in the thousandth place is a five or higher. Round down if the thousandth place digit is a four or lower.
In this case, we round up since the thousandth place digit is a six. So 19-minutes is the equivalent of .27 hundredth in military time (the equivalent military minute).
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you write minutes in military time?
To write minutes in military time, you need to divide the number of minutes by 60, then round the hundredths place up or down depending on if the number in the thousandths place is a five or higher. That is the number you will write after the colon.
Example: 15 minutes divided by 60-seconds is .25. If it is 9:15 PM your 24 hour conversion calculation would be 9 + 12 = 21 + .25 = 21.25, so 21:25 (said twenty one twenty five hours)
How do you say 1 hour in military?
To refer to a particular hour of the day say the corresponding military hour followed by the the words, “hundred hours.” For example, 4 PM civilian time would be 1600 military time. You would say, “sixteen hundred hours.” This is how you say what hour it is in military time.
How do you add military hours?
To add military hours tack on (add) one hour to the next. For example, 1700 hours + 0200 hours = 1900 hours military time.
What is the easiest way to calculate military time?
The easiest way to calculate military time is to simply wear a military watch. This way you always know what time it is local time in military time. And it’s best to purchase digital watches that give you the proper time format and military time minutes.