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What You See On A Clock

The document explains how to tell time on an analog clock. It discusses the parts of a clock face including the hour and minute hands. It provides examples of different ways to state the time, such as o'clock, quarter past/to, and half past. The document concludes with practice problems asking the reader to determine the time shown on sample clocks.

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136 views12 pages

What You See On A Clock

The document explains how to tell time on an analog clock. It discusses the parts of a clock face including the hour and minute hands. It provides examples of different ways to state the time, such as o'clock, quarter past/to, and half past. The document concludes with practice problems asking the reader to determine the time shown on sample clocks.

Uploaded by

rvijaycse
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What You See on a Clock

A day is 24 hours long. A clock only shows 12 hours or half a day.

The front of a clock is called the face. Let's talk about the different
parts of the clock face.

Look at this picture of a clock.

The red marks divide the clock into 12 parts. Each part is one hour. Count
the red marks and see how many you get. You should have found 12.

Many clocks have a number by each mark to make it easier to tell the
time.
Notice that the number 12 is at the top and the numbers 1 to 11 go around
in the direction shown by the arrow. ( Fun fact: this direction is called
clockwise.)

The clock face has two hands that point to the time. The little hand, or
hour hand, tells the hour of the day. In the first picture below, the little
hand is pointing to the 1, telling you that the time is 1 o'clock. ( Fun fact:
o'clock is a short way of saying of the clock.)

In the next three pictures, the little hand shows other hours:
    

Can you tell what time it is on each clock?

An hour is made up of 60 minutes. The marks in the picture below show


each minute in the hour. Try to count each of the marks and see if you
get to 60. Start counting at the first blue mark to the right of the red
mark at 12 o'clock. As you count, notice that every 5 marks are exactly
the same as the red hour marks. The hour marks are bigger, but they are
used to count the minutes as well as the hours.
The next picture shows the numbers for both the hours and the minutes.
The numbers 1 through 12 on the inside of the circle are the hours. The
numbers on the outside of the circle are the minutes. The picture only
shows every 5 minutes--it would be too crowded if we showed every
minute! Notice that the minutes go in the same direction around the clock
face as the hours, in a clockwise direction.

The big hand points to the minutes. It is also called the minute hand. In
the first picture below, the big hand is pointing to the 5 minute mark.
In the next three pictures, the big hand points to other minute marks:

  

Can you tell the minutes on each of these clocks?

 
Learning to Tell Time
Clocks and watches have both a big hand to tell the minutes and a little
hand to tell the hour. Look at the picture below. The hour hand is pointing
to the 1, and the minute hand is pointing to the 12 (or 0 minutes). It is
exactly one o'clock.

Another way to write one o'clock is 1:00. The symbol : is called a colon. It
separates the hours from the minutes. The number on the left side of the
colon tells the hour and the number on the right side tells the minutes.

To tell the time, you look at the hour hand first and then the minute hand.
In the picture above, the hour hand is pointing to the number 1, and the
minute hand is pointing to the number 15 (look at the outside of the
clock), so it is one-fifteen, or 1:15. You can also use the red hour marks to
count the minutes by fives: five, ten, fifteen.

Notice that the hour hand is not pointing exactly at the 1, but has moved
a little to the 2. As the minute hand moves all the way around the clock,
the hour hand moves from one hour to the next. You will be using a
program that shows you how the two hands move as we just described.

Most clocks only show the hour numbers. Some have no numbers at all.
From now on, our examples will only show the hour numbers. The program
that you will be practicing with has no numbers. You just need to
remember where they are. If you forget, go back and look at the picture
at the top of this page.

There are two types of clocks:

 A clock with hands, called an analog clock


 A clock with numbers only, called a digital clock

In this lesson you are learning to tell time on an analog clock. A digital
clock tells you both the hour and the minutes using numbers, such as
11:35. Later you will practice telling and setting the time on both types of
clocks.

What time does this clock show?


In this picture, you can see that the hour hand is pointing a little bit
after the 2. The minute hand is pointing to the 4, so you know it is 20
minutes past the hour. Remember that you can count the minutes by 5's
using the hour marks. The time on this clock is 2:20, or two-twenty.

Different Ways to Say the Time

You can divide an hour, which is 60 minutes long, into four parts. The
parts are divided by the 0, 15, 30, and 45 minute marks as shown in the
picture below. Each of the four parts are called quarters. In the table
below, you will learn some ways to say the time using the word "quarter".

  o'clock  

quarter to quarter past

  half past  
When the number of minutes is greater than 30, instead of saying the
number of minutes after the hour, you can say the number of minutes
before the next hour, or the number of minutes to the hour.

The following table shows different ways to say the time, including the
word "quarter" and the word "to".

Time Ways to Say the Time


4:00 Four o'clock
Two-fifteen
2:15
Quarter past two
Six-thirty
6:30
Half past six
Two-forty-five
2:45
Quarter to three
Seven-fifty
7:50
Ten to eight
Eight-eleven
8:11
Eleven minutes past eight
Eleven-forty-eight
11:48
Twelve minutes to twelve
Twelve o'clock
12:00 Noon (middle of the day)
Midnight (middle of the night)

Practice Telling the Time

Try telling the time on this clock:


Click here to check your answer.

Try this one:

Click here to check your answer.

Sometimes the minute hand will point between two hour marks. You can
count by 5's up to the hour mark before the minute hand, then count the
minute marks up to where the minute hand is pointing. For example, look
at this clock:
You count 5-10-15-20. Then count the minute marks: 21-22-23. The time
is seven-twenty-three, or 7:23.

What time is it in these examples?

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