Fortnight, exactly how long is it?

Monday, March 5th, 2007
by Terry

I have been listening to the Harry Potter series on audio books.  This unit of time is used quite often in them.  I had to find out how long it is.  According to Wikipedia, I quote.

A fortnight is a unit of time equal to two weeks: that is 14 days, or literally 14 nights. The term is common in the British Isles and many Commonwealth countries, but rarely used in the United States. It derives from the Old English feowertiene niht, meaning “fourteen nights“.

• 1 fortnight = 2 sennights (or two weeks)
• 1 fortnight = 336 hours
• 1 fortnight = 20,160 minutes
• 1 fortnight = 1,209,600 seconds