# I don't know how to read a simple clock, please help me. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 1, 2010, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988 "2010-05-01T23:46:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/21 "2010-05-02T23:49:41Z")
> [@Logical\_Phallacy](#): > > I recently came across [this](http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/59e0/) clock, but I do not understand how to read it. If you scroll down it tells you how to read it. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/22 "2010-05-02T23:57:22Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > If you scroll down it tells you how to read it. If you scroll up, the OP linked to that image. šŸ˜› ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/23 "2010-05-03T00:01:02Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > If you scroll up, the OP linked to that image. šŸ˜› :smack: :smack: He did indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/24 "2010-05-03T01:28:43Z")
I have one, too, but mineā€™s one of the older ones that doesnā€™t have the pure-binary option. And like **Scarlett67** , I waste way too much time watching it form interesting patterns. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/25 "2010-05-03T08:33:36Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Iā€™ve seen kinetic sculptures like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dT8pdv0LVY&feature=fvw). The binary part would be easy, the video shows a gate that alternately sends balls down one of two tracks. It would be tough to make one that kept time to the second, though. To reset the minutes, you could have an accumulator at the bottom, and when it had collected enough balls, the weight would trigger a switch that emptied the minute displays and direct a ball to roll down the hours track. Having posted that, now Iā€™m wondering if I could actually build it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/26 "2010-05-03T16:26:29Z")
I have a clock that works using rolling balls in accumulators, too. It dropped one ball in the top every minute, and when enough balls rolled into a levered tray, most of them would roll back to the ball reservoir, and one would roll to the next tray. Unfortunately the motor burned out in a power surge, but while the motor worked, it kept time pretty well: Itā€™d only drop about 2 or 3 balls a week. One of these times, I really ought to see about replacing the motor in it. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/27 "2010-05-03T20:08:50Z")
BCD is commonly used for digital clocks. The internals of this binary clock are probably the same as a standard digital clock. Except the binary clock doesnā€™t need to map the BCD digit to a set of light segments to activate in the 7-segment display. > [@Rysto](#): > > Iā€™m pretty sure that all x86 processors have instructions that act on BCD quantities. Yep. I remember learning these instructions back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/28 "2010-05-03T20:24:01Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I have a clock that works using rolling balls ā€¦ I had one of those. I think I ended up tossing it because it was so noisy. 1:00 was especially bad as I remember. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/29 "2010-05-03T20:40:45Z")
> [@hougaswd](#): > > The only people I know that use binary notation are programmers who work in assembly language. This is a very tiny subset of computer programmers. Someone who actually uses binary would sneer at this whacked implementation. There are only 10 types of people in this world: Those who understand binary numbers and those who donā€™t. (Okay, old joke. Sorry.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/30 "2010-05-03T21:49:03Z")
There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand trinary, those who donā€™t, and those who donā€™t have any clue of what trinary is. ---
**Author:** ![chromaticity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@chromaticity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chromaticity)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/31 "2010-05-04T09:12:52Z")
Hereā€™s a real binary watch. > **[Watches](https://tokyoflash.com/collections/watches)** ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/32 "2010-05-04T15:07:59Z")
Yeah, I first tried to read it as real hex; stopped by the thought ā€œHow can it have more than 64 minutes in the hourā€? Itā€™s BCD. So itā€™s only semi-geek. BTW - Even the early (ASCII) microprocessors had packed-decimal math operations. Useful if the chip was intended for calculators, or business programming for abitrary-sized numbers where decimal accuracy was necessary. (COBOL COMP-3). ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/33 "2010-05-05T16:43:05Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > BTW - Even the early (ASCII) microprocessors Whatā€™s an ASCII microprocessor? I know what ASCII and microprocessors are. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988/34 "2010-05-05T16:50:42Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Whatā€™s an ASCII microprocessor? I know what ASCII and microprocessors are. The earlier post implied that packed decimal (COMP-3) and decimal arithmetic operations were features of the IBM Mainframe-type EBCDIC-based computers. Just pointing out that the early microprocessors, like the 8080 based ones that typically used ASCII in their operating systems, also had packed-decimal op-codes. Itā€™s just that most software nowadays tends to use the floating point and pure binary integer math instead. Not sure if the current Pentium-based processors retain packed-decimal opcodes; it was advantageous for business computers, espcecially running COBOL, that wanted to do pure decimal arithmetic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-know-how-to-read-a-simple-clock-please-help-me/537988.md?page=1)