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.

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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.

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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:

Quote:

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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.

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

Quote:

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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.

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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?

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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?

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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.