A minute was a small increment of time that made up portion of an hour. On Earth a minute was 1/60 of an hour, and was divided up into 60 seconds.
In colloquial speech, a minute could mean an undefined short amount of time, as in "I'll be just a minute". (DS9: "Playing God") A common Earth slang was the question, "Do you have a minute?" (ENT: "Fortunate Son")
Comparative duration
- The crew of Enterprise NX-01 would be dead within 3 minutes when exposed to the radiolytic isotopes of a neutronic storm. (ENT: "The Catwalk")
- In June 2151, during a discussion in the situation room on the bridge of Enterprise NX-01, Hoshi Sato told Malcolm Reed that he cannot expect a landing party report to the bridge every 10 minutes. Reed suggested that this should be standard procedure. (ENT: "The Andorian Incident")
- Balok of the First Federation granted the crew of the USS Enterprise "10 Earth time periods known as minutes to make preparations" for their destruction. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver")
- When Bractor allowed Captain Jean-Luc Picard time to decide the fate of the USS Hathaway and her crew, he gave the Captain "10 of your minutes" to comply. (TNG: "Peak Performance")
- When Travis Mayweather reviewed data about the Terra Nova Expedition, Enterprise was still three hours and 17 minutes away from the colony. (ENT: "Terra Nova")
- Commander Trip Tucker needed 40 minutes to synthesize new valve seals. (ENT: "Fortunate Son")
Non-comparative references
- Doctor Phlox needed a few minutes to synthesize cytolytic injections. (ENT: "Terra Nova")
- Captain Jonathan Archer needed a few minutes to join the Novans Nadet and Jamin in the launch bay when Phlox reported to him. (ENT: "Terra Nova")
Solar minute
A solar minute was a unit of time.
During the deposition for Montgomery Scott's trial for the murder of Kara, after the realization that an unknown entity named Redjac may be involved, Spock had the computer "digest log recordings for past five solar minutes" in order to correlate the hypotheses with lifeforms known to exist in the galaxy. (TOS: "Wolf in the Fold")