** HELP WITH DATE FUNCTIONS **

Hi world

	When I do a 
	SELECT to_date('16-SEP-94 14:12:18','DD-MON-YY HH24:MI:SS') - TO_DATE('12-SEP-94 00:01:32', 'DD-MON-YY HH24:MI:SS')
	FROM DUAL

	I get the answer as 4.59081019

	Now I am confused as to what this 4.59081019 is! 

	I would appreciate if you can email me at ram_at_artecon.com


	thanx

	--ram

	ps
	 if this is a RTFM situation, I would appreciate the page numbers please :)
	 ORACLE 7 on a Sun SPARC 1000 running SunOS 5.3, PL/SQL ver 2.0.17.1.0