--- title: Alarms, stopwatches and how long a second is — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Alarms, stopwatches and how long a second is», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A second is about as long as it takes to say "one Mississippi" or "one elephant" at a calm speed. 60 seconds make a minute and --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/) / Alarms, stopwatches and how long a sec… # Alarms, stopwatches and how long a second is Lesson 105 of the world course of Mova's primary school: 19 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/0/) — A second is about as long as it takes to say "one Mississippi" or "one elephant" at a calm speed. 60 seconds make a minute and 60 minutes make an hour, so a minute is sixty of those little "Mississippis". - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/1/) — A stopwatch measures short times very exactly, even tenths and hundredths of a second. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/2/) — In a race, half a second is a big gap: if Lola runs 60 metres in 12.4 seconds and her friend in 11.9, the friend is 0.5 seconds faster. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/3/) — A timer counts down and beeps at zero. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/4/) — On a microwave or a phone timer, two numbers with a colon usually mean minutes and seconds, not hours and minutes: 1:30 is one and a half minutes, 90 seconds. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/6/) — Snoozing gives a few more minutes, but the sleep is broken and many people feel more tired. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/7/) — Better to add up your morning jobs and pick one alarm that leaves time to spare. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/8/) — There are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/9/) — Counting "one Mississippi, two Mississippi" or "one elephant, two elephant" slows you down to about one second for each number. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/10/) — A stopwatch is a clock you start and stop to measure how long something takes, often to a tenth or hundredth of a second. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/11/) — In a race the lower time wins: 11.9 seconds beats 12.4 seconds by 0.5 seconds, half a second. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/12/) — The 100-metre world record, 9.58 seconds, was set by Usain Bolt in 2009; a fast 9-year-old might take about 16 to 18 seconds. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/13/) — A countdown timer counts down to zero and then beeps, so you do not have to guess. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/14/) — On a microwave or timer, 1:30 means 1 minute 30 seconds, which is 90 seconds. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/15/) — Half a minute is 30 seconds, so 35 seconds is just over half a minute and 25 seconds short of a whole minute. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/16/) — Dentists say to brush your teeth for about 2 minutes, which is 120 seconds; 30 seconds is only a quarter of that. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/18/) — Snoozing an alarm gives broken, light sleep, and many people feel more tired after lots of snoozing. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/19/) — To choose an alarm time, add up how long each morning job takes and count on from the alarm. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/105-alarms-stopwatches-how-long-a-second-is/20/) — Words people use: "ages" means a long time, "in your dreams" means no way, "mid" means just average, nothing special, "no cap" means "no lie" and "I'm dead" means "that's so funny". - ← previous: [Timetables: buses, trains, TV and the school day](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/104-timetables-buses-trains-school-day/) - next →: [Late and early: being where you need to be on time](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/106-late-and-early-being-on-time/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)