I just found one more use for analog clocks: we can expose the Moties among us because they mix up the big hand and the little hand.
Most of the world uses the metric system and the only time they would need to know any other system is when they talk to an American. Analog clocks are like that, they’re important because some people insist that they are important. Once those people die out, analog clocks won’t be important any more.
One thing I haven’t seen discussed: Reading the time is a non-trivial subject, but that’s due to bad design. The representation of time on analog clocks is a mess. It’s 2 or 3 dials stacked on top of each other, with differing scales.
The short hand sweeps through the numbers 1 through 12, because a day has… 24 hours. The long hand sweeps through the numbers 1 through 12 on most clocks, but it represents a scale of 0 through 59 minutes. And the, uh, hand for seconds (trotteuse in my head) does the same 0..59 but faster.
A much better (*) representation would have 2 or 3 separate dials side by side:
- 0 through 23 for hours, marked clearly in hours;
- 0 through 59 for minutes, marked clearly in minutes, with visual cues every 10 minutes;
- Optionally 0 through 59 for seconds, marked clearly in seconds, with visual cues every 10 seconds.
This may take longer to read but should be much easier to decode, kinda like a digital readout. (It would also make wristwatches more impressive.)
(* Much better because I say so.)
I think in quarter hours, not sixths of hours, personally.
As an American who grew up in the 70s, I was educated using both Imperial and Metric measure during Jimmy Carter’s fruitless effort to get America on the Metric system. Thus I speak both meters and feet. But I also have a tendency to use whichever system seems most appropriate based on the task I’m performing. If I am doing any kind of carpentry, a base 12 system works much better. Cooking and baking I use metric for measurements and Fahrenheit for temperature. But I’m also a sailor and a weirdo that thinks knots makes more sense for speed on a boat or an airplane even though I am attuned to mph in land transportation. I find that it’s akin to being multilingual. When I lived in Europe I had no trouble with liters of fuel and 100 kph speed limits. It’s about finding a reference point so you can translate in your head. The only measure I’ve found that it doesn’t work for is Celsius/Fahrenheit, which still befuddles me.
Apologies for not reading the most recent 80 or so posts. Has anyone offered a better alternative for efficiently describing where something is? You are driving or walking down a road. You ask your companion if they noticed a sign/animal/person/whatever. They ask, “Where is it?” Sure, you could point - which requires that they look at you. But what is easier, preferable, more economical and intuitive than saying, “10 o’clock!”?
Agreed. I think many people are over-focused on the notion of using and teaching one single metrological system. On the contrary, the concept of multiple systems and conversion between units is important in its own right.
I almost never convert. But i am fluent in English and metric distances and volumes. I weigh people in pounds and small quantities in grams or milligrams. I have a good sense of fahrenheit from -10 through 100, and for cooking. I am comfortable in Celsius from 0 through 45 (but don’t know it for cold weather, nor for cooking.) Unless i need to make something fit precisely, i assume a yard equals a meter.
I, also, grew up when the US looked like it might move to metric, and I’ve also traveled enough to use metric on daily life.
It’s just a number. They both work fine.
In my opinion, being able to read an analog clock is the definition of telling time….as opposed to simply reading numbers.
If someone has a disability and cannot interpret an analog clock, then yes, they can get by, using a phone. But that situation doesn’t apply to most people. Not being able to read an analog clock is like being illiterate.
I think if you can look at the numbers and understand what that means in terms of what time it is, and how that relates to whatever you need to do next, you are telling time just fine.
I agree that translating numbers into time is a slightly different skill than translating clock hands into time.
I’m an analog appreciator, as my previous posts indicate, and even I think this take is kind of extreme.
I would say that not being able to read an analog clock, in terms of contemporary practical life function, is more like not being able to make change in a cash transaction. Yes, it’s an identifiable gap in one’s knowledge and skills involving quantitative thinking. And yes, it can sometimes be inconvenient to a minor extent. But it isn’t depriving you of any information or capacity that you can’t get pretty easily in some other way.
It takes a long period of acclimatization to get used to Celsius. Canada switched to Celsius temperatures for weather reporting back in 1975 and eventually indoor thermostats used Celsius by default, but it took me decades to really get used to it. Ironically, oven and cooking temperatures are still in Fahrenheit, I presume because of the prevalence of American recipes and cooking instructions.
When I lived in Spain I got used to interpreting Celsius temps for the climate in southern Spain - basically from 10 to 40. Teens is chilly and over 30 is hot. I kept an index card taped to my stove with conversions for oven settings, but I’ll be damned if I can remember them 30 years later. I’ve actually tried to force myself to interpret Celsius (I watch a lot of Formula 1) but I’ve mostly just given up. I presume converting to Fahrenheit is equally frustrating if Celsius is what you are used to.
Work in a law office long enough and you’ll think in tenths of hours.
The problem is that the baselines for temperature are so different. Length and distance is easy – a kilometer is very nearly 2/3 of a mile; a meter is a little more than a yard, there are 2.54 centimeters in an inch, and a US quart is almost the same as a liter. But temperature uses way different baselines – 0 Celsius is the freezing point of water, 0 Fahrenheit is some stupid thing that nobody cares about. All I know about 0 Fahrenheit is that it’s damn cold and I’m staying inside!
Zero is as child as it usually gets around here, so i kinda like it as a base. If it’s above zero, it’s a normal wonder temperature. If it’s below zero, it’s damn cold.
It’s just a number. I almost never convert mathematically between one and the other. I just know what either one feels like.
Oops, that was supposed to say
Zero is as cold as it usually gets around here, so i kinda like it as a base. If it’s above zero, it’s a normal winter temperature.
Like a Puerto Rican?
They use a weird mix of both systems.
The distance sign says 54km to San Juan. The speed limit sign says speed limit 65mph.
“How long until we reach San Juan?”
HTF should I know?
Puerto Rico is America. Like, United States America, but just Western hemisphere America.