Tutorial:Units of measure
This tutorial is designed to compare units of measurement in Minecraft to real life units and to compare different units used in-game.
Time
To convert time in Minecraft to time in real life, simply divide by 72. To do the reverse, multiply by 72. To measure ticks in Minecraft, multiply the real time (seconds) by 20 (this doesn't factor in lag and assumes a constant 20tps).
| Minecraft Time | Real Time | Ticks |
|---|---|---|
| 3.6 seconds | = 0.05 seconds | = 1 |
| 1 minute | ≈ 0.83 seconds | ≈ 17 |
| 1.2 minutes | = 1 second | = 20 |
| 1 hour | = 50 seconds | = 1,000 |
| 1.2 hours | = 1 minute | = 1,200 |
| 1 day | = 20 minutes | = 24,000 |
| 3 days | = 1 hour | = 72,000 |
| 1 week | ≈ 2.33 hours | = 168,000 |
| 1 lunar cycle (8 days) | ≈ 2.67 hours | = 192,000 |
| 1 month (30 days) | = 10 hours | = 720,000 |
| 72 days | = 1 day | = 1,728,000 |
| 1 year (365 days) | ≈ 5.07 days | = 8,760,000 |
| 504 days (1.38 years) | = 1 week | = 12,096,000 |
| 2160 days (5.92 years) | = 1 month | = 51,840,000 |
| 1 decade | ≈ 50.69 days ≈ 7.22 weeks | = 87,600,000 |
| 72 years (26280 days) | = 1 year | = 630,720,000 |
| 1 century | ≈ 1.39 years | = 876,000,000 |
Amount of items
1 item is the most basic measurement in quantity.
- 1 block = 9 items. Used for resources that can be crafted into storage blocks and back (most kinds of processed minerals, slimeballs, bone meal, melon slices, wheat, dried kelp)
- 1 stack = 64 items = 7 blocks, 1 item. Note that some items like banners, signs, eggs, and ender pearls only stack to 16. So if someone says they have a stack of eggs, they have 16. For unstackable items, a stack is just 1.
- One stack of a fully-stackable material (e.g. stone, diamond) will fully occupy one slot in one's inventory. A bundle, added in the Bundles of Bravery update, allow different types of items as long as the total is 64.
- 1 full hopper = 5 stacks = 320 items.
- 1 stack of blocks = 9 stacks = 576 items when completely uncrafted.
- 1 full dispenser or dropper = 9 stacks = 576 items.
- Mining capacity of an unenchanted diamond pickaxe = 24 stacks 25 items = 1561 items.
- 1 full chest = 27 slots or 27 stacks = 1,728 items.
- Mining capacity of an unenchanted netherite pickaxe = 31 stacks 47 items = 2031 items
- 1 inventory = 37 stacks = 2,368 items, when the offhand is included.
- 1 full double chest = 2 chestfuls = 54 stacks = 3,456 items.
- 1 chestful of shulker boxes = 27 chestfuls = 729 stacks = 46,656 items.
- 1 double-chestful of shulker boxes = 54 chestfuls = 1458 stacks = 93,312 items.
A useful tool to convert different units in the game can be found on https://gamertools.net/tools/1.
Health
The basic measure of health is one health point (1HP
). One heart (2HP
) is also commonly used when talking about health.
| Damage/entity | HP |
|---|---|
| Chicken | 4HP
|
| Item | 5HP
|
| Instant Damage | 6HP
|
| Diamond sword | 7HP
|
| Netherite sword | 8HP
|
| Cow | 10HP
|
| Sharpness V netherite sword (Java Edition) | 11HP × 5.5
|
| Sharpness V netherite axe | 13HP × 6.5
|
| Sharpness V netherite sword (Bedrock Edition) | 15HP × 7.5
|
| Player | 20HP × 10
|
| Enderman | 40HP × 20
|
| TNT | 65HP × 32.5 max
|
| Iron Golem | 100HP × 50
|
| Ender Dragon | 200HP × 100
|
| Wither (in Java Edition or on Easy in Bedrock Edition) | 300HP × 150
|
| Wither (on Normal in Bedrock Edition) | 450HP × 225
|
| Warden | 500HP × 250
|
| Wither (on Hard in Bedrock Edition) | 600HP × 300
|
| Player with maximum Health Boost and maximum Absorption | 2068HP × 1034
|
/kill |
3.4028234663852886E38HP × 1.7014117331926E+38 (max value of double 0x7F7FFFFF)
|
Hunger
Similarly, the basic unit in hunger is a food point—1 (
)—displayed as a ham shank.
A full hunger bar (20 (
× 10)) contains 20 food points.
Additionally there are another 20 saturation points, which are invisible but are used when performing actions before hunger, so the maximum value is 40.
Speed
Distance
Minecraft's worlds are a voxel grid where each block represents a voxel which is one cubic meter (1m3).
Knowing that one block is one cubic meter, we can derive that:
Metric units
| Unit Desgination | Blocks | Pixels |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Terameter | 1T blocks | 16T pixels |
| 1 Gigameter | 1B blocks | 16B pixels |
| 1 Megameter | 1M blocks | 16M pixels |
| 1 Kilometer | 1,000 blocks | 16,000 pixels |
| 1 Hectometer | 100 blocks | 1600 pixels |
| 1 Decameter | 10 blocks | 160 pixels |
| 1 Meter | 1 block | 16 pixels |
| 1 Decimeter | 0.1 blocks | 1.6 pixels |
| 1 Centimeter | 0.01 blocks | 0.16 pixels |
| 1 Millimeter | 0.001 blocks | 0.016 pixels |
| 6.25 cm | 0.0625 blocks | 1 pixel |
| 62.5 cm | 0.625 blocks | 10 pixels |
| 6.25 m | 6.25 blocks | 100 pixels |
| 62.5 m | 62.5 blocks | 1,000 pixels |
| 625 m | 625 blocks | 10,000 pixels |
| Blocks | Volume |
|---|---|
| 1 block | 1 m3 |
| 1 block | 1,000 liters |
- Note that a water block is 0.9 m3 because it is 0.9 meters high.
Imperial/U.S customary units
| Length | Blocks |
|---|---|
| 1 mile | 1,609.344 blocks |
| 1 yard | 0.9144 blocks |
| 1 foot | 0.3048 blocks |
| 1 inch | 0.0254 blocks |
| Blocks | Length |
|---|---|
| 1 block | 0.000621371192 miles |
| 1.0936133 yards | |
| 3.2808399 feet | |
| 39.3700787 inches |
| Blocks | Length (approx.) |
|---|---|
| 1 block | ≈ 1⁄1,760 miles |
| ≈ 1 yard | |
| ≈ 3 feet | |
| ≈ 36 inches | |
| 1 pixel | 1⁄28,160 miles |
| 0.2 feet | |
| 2.46 inches |
| Blocks | Volume |
|---|---|
| 1 block | ≈ 264 US fluid gallons |
| ≈ 227 US dry gallons | |
| ≈ 219 Imperial Gallons |
Gravity
Using the /attribute command, you can convert gravity in Minecraft to gravity in real life, simply divide by 0.08. To do the reverse, multiply by 0.08. Earth's gravity is 9.81m/s2 The surface gravity on Earth is 1g.
| Object name | Minecraft Gravity | Real Gravity |
|---|---|---|
| Earth | = 0.08 | = 1 |
| Sun | = 2.24 | = 28 |
| Mercury and Mars | = 0.0304 | = 0.38 |
| Venus | = 0.072 | = 0.9 |
| Moon | = 0.0136 | = 0.17 |
| Jupiter | = 0.2024 | = 2.53 |
| Saturn | = 0.0848 | = 1.06 |
| Uranus | = 0.0712 | = 0.89 |
| Neptune | = 0.0912 | = 1.14 |
| Pluto | = 0.0048 | = 0.06 |
| Titan | = 0.011 | = 0.138 |
