Thread: 48-hour days?

"Miners, including children, work up to 48-hour days amidst mudslides and tunnel collapses that kill many."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_minerals

To me it looks as if people work up to 48 hours a day, which is nonsense. Is it just a misprint or something else?

No, it means they work 48 hours in a row, so they create a day of 48 hours.

Robin

Thank you.
No wonder I couldn't have guessed that. Such long hours in a mine are beyond my imagination.

Originally Posted by E-learner

Thank you.
No wonder I couldn't have guessed that. Such long hours in a mine are beyond my imagination.

E-learner...Robin is correct... If you click on the footnote in Wiki it's source is a New York Times article from November 15, 2008 and on page 3 about 2/3rds of the way down is where that info came from:

The tunnels are pitch-black and suffocatingly narrow. They often fill with dangerous fumes. Miners sometimes spend 48 hours straight working in the tunnels. The open pits are dangerous, too: heavy rains cause mudslides and collapses. Cave-ins, mudslides and gases kill and maim an unknown number of workers every year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/wo...ed=1&th&emc=th

Originally Posted by E-learner

Thank you.
No wonder I couldn't have guessed that. Such long hours in a mine are beyond my imagination.

This is a common expression you'll hear also with the word "week." When it refers to weeks, it does not mean straight through without a break:

She was working 8-hours days. (Normal.)
She was working 16-hours days and was always tired. (Each day she worked 16-hours straight.)
She was working 40-hour weeks. (Normal: 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.)
She was working 80-hour weeks and was always tired. (She worked 16 hours a day, 5 days a week... or any other combination that adds up to 80 hours in a week.)

When "weeks" is used, it is assumed that there the work is shared between different days, not that she worked 80 hours straight through without a break. Does that make sense?

Originally Posted by Lynn

When "weeks" is used, it is assumed that there the work is shared between different days, not that she worked 80 hours straight through without a break. Does that make sense?

It does, because in Russian it's the same thing exactly.
сорокачасовая рабочая неделя
Actually, I would have understood сорокавосьмичасовой рабочий день too in that context in Russian, even though it would sound unusual.