Let's walk through the correct process for converting 26 hours into seconds and identify the skipped step in the student's calculation.
1. Correct Conversion Process:
To convert hours into seconds, we need to first convert hours into minutes and then convert minutes into seconds:
[tex]\[
1 \text{ hour} = 60 \text{ minutes}
\][/tex]
[tex]\[
1 \text{ minute} = 60 \text{ seconds}
\][/tex]
Therefore, the conversion from hours to seconds involves two steps:
[tex]\[
26 \text{ hours} \times \left(\frac{60 \text{ minutes}}{1 \text{ hour}}\right) \times \left(\frac{60 \text{ seconds}}{1 \text{ minute}}\right)
\][/tex]
2. Performing the Steps:
- Convert hours to minutes:
[tex]\[
26 \text{ hours} \times 60 \text{ minutes/hour} = 1560 \text{ minutes}
\][/tex]
- Convert minutes to seconds:
[tex]\[
1560 \text{ minutes} \times 60 \text{ seconds/minute} = 93600 \text{ seconds}
\][/tex]
3. Student's Incorrect Calculation:
The student's incorrect result was obtained by skipping a step. She directly multiplied hours by seconds without converting hours to minutes first:
[tex]\[
26 \text{ hours} \times \left(\frac{60 \text{ seconds}}{1 \text{ minute}}\right) = 1560 \text{ seconds}
\][/tex]
4. Identification of the Skipped Step:
To calculate the correct number of seconds in 26 hours, the intermediate step of converting hours to minutes was skipped. She missed the conversion ratio of converting hours to minutes.
The skipped ratio is:
[tex]\[
\frac{60 \text{ minutes}}{1 \text{ hour}}
\][/tex]
Therefore, the correct answer is:
[tex]\[
C. \frac{60 \text{ minutes}}{1 \text{ hour}}
\][/tex]
