Understanding how も works in 一刻も早い


I'm trying to understand the sentence

> **一刻も早い** 解決を望みますね

but the bolded is throwing me off. Here I'm assuming "一刻も早い" is 一刻 + も + 早い,
and here も is throwing me off.

I'm used to thinking of "も" as conveying things like "also", "additional", or
"even though". So under this viewpoint:

  * **一刻:** "moment"
  * **も:** "additional"
  * **早い:** "is-quick"

So I'm tempted to parse this as "additional-moment-is-quick", though this
doesn't make much sense.

**Question:** What does the も convey after 一刻? How would the meaning of the
sentence change if the も was omitted, or if 一刻は was used instead? E.g.

  1. **一刻も早い:** ?
  2. **一刻は早い:** "as for a moment, is-quick"?
  3. **一刻早い:** "quick moment"?




The も is close to _even (though)_. as hiroki's answer suggests, it is usually
でも as in 子供でも分かる (Even a child can understand (let alone grown-ups)).

Another thing is that 早い here is _early/earlier_.

So, 一刻も早く literally means _earlier even by 一刻_ (+ if it is earlier by days, it
is better), which translates to more idiomatic _asap_.

Though it shouldn't be relevant, [刻](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%88%BB)
does not have a fixed length but is something like 15 - 40 mins.

