Which is shorter 3/6 of a minute or 4/6 of an hour

From the question itself, it might be clear that because a minute is so much shorter than an hour (a minute is only 1/60th of an hour, because there are 60 minutes in each hour), 3/6 of a minute will be shorter than 4/6 of an hour.

But, if you wanted to calculate this the long way, you can.

To compare these two you can convert them to a unit of time that they have in common - for example, minutes.

In the first fraction, you can reduce 3/6 down to 1/2 - you probably already know that 1/2 is the same as half a minute.

Then you can multiply fractions to find out how many minutes are in 4/6 of an hour.

4/6 can also be reduced down to 2/3. You also know that there are 60 minutes in an hour.

(2/3 / 1 hr) x (1 hr/60 min) = (2/3) x 60 = 120/3 = 40 min

40 min is of course bigger than half a minute! So 3/6 of a minute is shorter.

3/6 of a minute is also 1/2 of a minute, so that is 30 seconds.

4/6 of an hour is also 2/3 of an hour, so that is 40 minutes.

As a result, 3/6 of a minute is shorter.