Writing: How To Tell Analogue Time

This week for writing, we were all asked by Miss Kirkpatrick to write an explanation, explaining step by step, how to tell analogue time on an analogue clock. In this explanation, we needed to explain how each hand of the clock works. Although this does not include the seconds hand, as it is not necessary to tell what minute, of an hour, of a day it is.

How to Tell Analogue Time

Tick tock, tick tock, this is not the sound of your average digital clock, rather an analogue
clock. A well known way of telling the time, but it is very famously known for the large
majority of people not knowing how to tell time from it. You may think that it is fine,
because you have a digital watch. Although knowing how to tell analogue time is a very
vital skill. Allow me to explain how these amazing pieces of technology work. Once you
have finished reading, you should know how each hand works.

There are two main hands all together: The hour hand or the short hand, and the minute
hand or the long hand. Let’s begin by learning about the short hand. This is the hand that
tells you what hour of the day or night it is. For most analogue clocks, this hand is
moving constantly every minute. Although it changes to the next hour each 60 minutes.
Here is a quick example. If the hour hand is directly on say three. Then it is three o’clock.
Although, if it is directly or nearly in between to numbers, say five and six, then the time is
most likely half past five.

Although this is not it. We still need to learn about the long hand. This hand is what tells
you what minute of an hour it is. This hand too is moving constantly. It changes each
minute every 60 seconds, and as said before, once the minute hand has moved 60 times,
it therefore has been an hour. Although there are quite a few call outs that comes with the
minute hand. Such as a quarter to blank (Blank being the hour it is). A few others would
be a quarter past blank, 45 to blank, 45 past blank, and half past blank. An example time
of the minute hand would be if the minute hand is on the hour three, then it is both quarter
past, and 45 to. Another example would be if the minute hand is on the hour 6, then it is
half past.

That is basically all you need to know, although you may have picked up that I said that
there are two main hands to the analogue clock. So what is the other remaining hand. Of
course, the second hand. This hand is constantly changing each second. Although you
don’t need this hand to tell the time, as usually you will not hear that the time is a quarter
seconds past eight thirty five. In fact, some analogue clocks don’t even have a second
hand at all.

We have not been learning digital time, instead, analogue time. Knowing how to tell
analogue time is a very important skill, but now that you have finished reading, you should
know how each hand works. So now, when someone asks you for the time you’ll know.