# Who can't tell time on an analog clock? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 22, 2018, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954 "2018-11-22T19:43:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/21 "2018-11-23T04:13:35Z")
Understanding a clock face is important for spatial thinking. Navigation bearings are in degrees. Turn clockwise and walk 12 ft. Turn 15 degrees N walk 7 feet and then turn 30 degrees west and walk 50 ft. You have to picture that clock face in your mind and think in degrees. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/22 "2018-11-23T04:14:28Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > A meter reader glanced at our gas meter for less than a second, then looked away and wrote down the reading. Note that [this type of meter](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0150/2930/files/gas-meter-dial-face_large.jpg?8162941318884441330) has four small dials which alternate clockwise increasing/counterclockwise increasing. I could figure out the reading given several seconds, but he got it in a glance just as I would with clock face. It’s all about what you’re used to. I was taught how to read electricity meters in high school: just like the gas meter. It’s extremely intuitive. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/23 "2018-11-23T04:53:52Z")
Apparently it’s very difficult for dyslexics. ---
**Author:** ![pabstist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e99b99/32.png) [@pabstist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pabstist)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/24 "2018-11-23T04:57:49Z")
I work with high school kids. Lots of them can’t read “round clocks”. And they are confused by terms like quarter after x, or 20 of x. I also worked with an English guy, who said “half 10”. So it’s 5 o’clock? Still can’t remember what that meant, must be metric. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/25 "2018-11-23T04:59:26Z")
I’ve been hitting this for ten years or more among people say half my age or less. A friend who taught shop class actually had to instruct his classes in it just so they remember clockwise and counterclockwise. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/26 "2018-11-23T05:01:18Z")
> [@pabstist](#): > > I also worked with an English guy, who said “half 10”. So it’s 5 o’clock? Still can’t remember what that meant, must be metric. It’s a definite English-ism (my Irish friends use it sometimes, too), but I can never remember if it means “half an hour past 10” (i.e., 10:30), or “half an hour until ten” (i.e., 9:30). ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/27 "2018-11-23T05:08:41Z")
I _can_ tell time on an analog clock, but I have to think about it each time. It’s like a language where I know the words but I’m not actually fluent. A quick glance at the clock tells me nothing. > [@Leaffan](#): > > Don’t all schools still have analogue clocks on the wall? I visited a high school that had digital clocks everywhere, 15ish years ago now. It was the fancy high school for the rich neighborhoods. (Mine just had flimsy battery-operated clocks that were either on the floor or had dead batteries half the time. Thanks, lowest bidder!) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/28 "2018-11-23T06:24:37Z")
How many people familiar with rotary phones knew that they could ‘dial’ with the ‘cradle’ or the buttons upon which you put the handset? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/29 "2018-11-23T10:02:58Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I grew up not being able read a sundial and I turned out ok. Everyone has a cellphone nowadays. Time marches on, as it were. I set my cellphone time display to be an imitation analog clock, but then I’m an old fart and had to make do with analog clocks (along with black and white TV and rotary dial phones) until I was all grown up. So, are these digital clock only people confused by phrases like “half past the hour” or “quarter to seven”? ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/30 "2018-11-23T10:09:48Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > It’s a definite English-ism (my Irish friends use it sometimes, too), but I can never remember if it means “half an hour past 10” (i.e., 10:30), or “half an hour until ten” (i.e., 9:30). In England it’s short for half an hour past, so 10:30.However, I believe in Germany a direct translation means 9:30, or so I was told when learning German and going on an exchange trip at school, and since then I’ve almost wholly switched to saying ‘ten thirty’. ‘20 of x’ means nothing to me though. 20 to? 20 past? 20 'x’s? Is it a person, like that Star Trek character? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/31 "2018-11-23T13:14:37Z")
Drawing a clock dial and marking a stated time is a common mental test doctors use on older people. I can see the headline decades from now: “Almost all older people are senile!” ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/32 "2018-11-23T13:54:37Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > How many people familiar with rotary phones knew that they could ‘dial’ with the ‘cradle’ or the buttons upon which you put the handset? Are you talking about pressing the buttons like morse code, i.e. 5 quick presses and releases for five, etc. When I was young, my friends said that it could be done with the cradle on payphones. I never saw them do it in person and when I tried they said my rhythm wasn’t right. So urban legend or not? Were you able to make it work? Edit: I just remembered at that least once when I tried it, at some point an operator came on. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/33 "2018-11-23T14:01:14Z")
At Johnny L.A., I’m not questioning your truthfulness, just curious if we’re talking about the same thing. Edit: Found this page [https://publicaddress.net/hardnews/the-other-kind-of-phone-tapping/](https://publicaddress.net/hardnews/the-other-kind-of-phone-tapping/) and the author says you have to subtract the number you want from 10, so 3 becames 7 taps. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/34 "2018-11-23T14:04:22Z")
The math teachers at my school have to endlessly push the kids to use fractions–they want to put everything in decimals because decimals are “easier”. They blame digital clocks and calculators. I feel like thinking in fractions is a pretty essential math reasoning skill, so we have sought to limit the digital clocks in our house. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/35 "2018-11-23T14:07:36Z")
This used to be a rite of passage in childhood-- learning to tell time from a clock with hands. (_“MIckey’s big hand is on the 12…”_) Also, learning to tie your shoes. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/36 "2018-11-23T14:08:59Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Apparently it’s very difficult for dyslexics. Speaking as a dyslexic, I find analog clocks much easier than digital clocks. Hmm, was that 4:14 or 4:41? Gotta look again. I learned to tell time on an analog clock without being taught, before I went to kindergarten, and I’m very fluent in relating time to distance. Comparing it to using a dial phone misses the point that an analog clock is a better representation of time – 4:59 LOOKS like it’s almost 5:00 on an analog clock. It looks completely different on a digital clock. There’s no comparable advantage to using a dial phone as the phone numbers themselves are meaningless. It’s not as if bigger phone numbers were different from smaller ones or something. That being said, reading an analog clock doesn’t seem like a critical skill so long as you can read SOME clock and have access to that sort of clock. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/37 "2018-11-23T14:22:28Z")
I’m curious how long it would take one of these people to figure it out, if locked in a room with an analog clock and couldn’t leave until they correctly read the time. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/38 "2018-11-23T14:30:09Z")
I can’t pass up the opportunity to comment on this. My mother would often tell people that I was a smart child, but that it took forever to teach me to tell time (from an analog clock). She did not seem to grasp that I understood “the big hand” (as in, “the big hand is on the 12”) to be mean the hour hand. On the clock(s) we were using, the hour hand was shorter, but much wider, than the minute hand. What she SHOULD have said was “the LONG hand is on the 12.” She was forever trying to teach me to recognize 4:00 by telling me that the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 4. When I looked at the clock, it was clear that she was crazy; the big hand was obviously on the 4. ---
**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:** [November 23, 2018, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/39 "2018-11-23T14:30:46Z")
**puzzlegal** , don’t ever ask an astrophysicist for his phone number, because he’ll tell you it’s “on the order of 10^7”. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954/40 "2018-11-23T14:52:39Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > Are you talking about pressing the buttons like morse code, i.e. 5 quick presses and releases for five, etc. When I was young, my friends said that it could be done with the cradle on payphones. I never saw them do it in person and when I tried they said my rhythm wasn’t right. So urban legend or not? Were you able to make it work? Yes. Rotary phones use pulses to indicate the number. Tapping the ‘hang-up buttons’ or cradle, e.g., five quick times for ‘five’, is how you ‘dial’ without the dial. I heard about this as a teen in the late-'70s, and I tried it. It worked. As for ‘phreaking’ public telephones, I’d never heard of that until about 10 years ago. It seemed quaint. 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-cant-tell-time-on-an-analog-clock/824954.md?page=3)