Real talk, is there some benefit to an analog clock that would prevent them from all being replaced by digital ones? Being able to know exactly the time in a moment’s glance seems better to me.
They’re certainly not better looking than a digital one, considering most of the ones used in schools are just the cheapest and most basic version they can get.
Power requirements maybe? Longevity?
It helps give people a geometrical understanding of the cyclic nature of time.
Lol I don’t think that’s true, and I don’t think those words work the way you used them anyway
Sounds like you just didn’t understand. Each hour of the 12 on the clock takes up 30° of the circle, and we measure time in cycles of hours, minutes, seconds that all match up well with the 360° of a circle.
Cutting pizza would also teach kids a geometrical understanding of how circles work, I don’t see how that translates at all to being innate to reading a clock. I know tons of people who can read a clock who suck at math. It seems like an incredibly weak assertion.
Making any excuse to not learn how analog clocks work is what’s really a weak assertion. It’s not that fucking hard.
Can’t do that with a digital display, can you?
It literally says on the image you sent how to do it with a digital display (besides, it’s pretty reasonable)
Not if you can’t imagine analogue clock.
Their method is “imagine a clock face showing that hour” how are you going to do that if you don’t know how analogue clocks work?
You can use them as a crude compass next time you find yourself unexpectedly in the wilderness.
An analog clock is just three sets of loading bars with their ends glued together. You can tell geometrically what proportion of each division of time (day, hour, and minute) are spent and what proportion remains. You don’t even need the numbers.
If you need stopwatch-level precision, sure, a digital display is superior. But how often do you need that? Most of what I need clocks for is, “Oh, it’s about a quarter to noon, I have a lunch appointment to get to”.
It is my personal preference to visually intuit that the clock hands are roughly separating the hour into 3/4 spent and 1/4 remaining and use that to know how much time I have left to the hour, rather than read the symbols “42” on the display and manually do the mental gymnastics of “well that’s basically 45, which is three quarters of the way to 60 minutes”.
I’ll admit this benefit is marginal.
I think that’s an interesting way to look at it. I find it easier to do the mental gymnastics, as you call it.
Genuine question, how precise do you need the time to be? Maybe you actually need precise readings for something. I figured that “on the 5 min marker”, “slightly before/behind the 5 min marker” and “in the middle of two 5 min markers” is precise enough for me. And I I see a hand at these positions faster than reading numbers.
I think for precise readings (eg. entering the time I start working), the speed is the same for me, but obviously I didn’t test this.
I also think looking at the time but then still not knowing what time it is happens less on an analog clock.
I don’t know how much personal preference influences this though.
They convey time instantly, without reading. You don’t even need the numbers for them to work. It’s like showing a progress bar versus just giving the percentage as a number.
Being able to know exactly the time in a moment’s glance seems better to me.
That seems more like a pro for analogue to me. It’s much easier with an analogue clock since you get a visual presentation of time. Whenever someone tells me a time, I have to first imagine an analogue clock to understand what that time means.
Honestly that’s just about being used to one versus the other. For me it’s basically the other way around
I prefer analogue clocks because I tend to have time blindness with ADHD, and it’s easier to see at a glance how much time is visually left in an hour or how much time is passing with an analogue clock. Just knowing that “15 min left” isn’t really as effective as being able to see a visual representation of “15 min left”, for example.
It proves to be somewhat useful as an example when trying to teach fractions and decimals, something we are absolutely terrible at teaching. Incomprehension of fraction to decimal conversion is why 90% of people who say they are bad at math, say they are bad at math.
Teaching someone how to read a clock for the sole purpose of using it as a math example seems like a poor use of effort.
I wouldn’t say that’s the sole purpose, just an additional purpose to being able to tell time. It’s also useful if the kid wants to be a pilot.
So what are the purposes? Nobody uses analog clocks anymore so afaict:
- To teach fractions
- Something to do with being a pilot???
What am I missing? 😛
Clockwise, counter clockwise. Classic time shorthand (IE, half past ten, quarter to eleven). Time estimations (easy to see a half minute on a analog clock, digital just goes from 2:00 to 2:01)
I think analog clock displays are more elegant, and are overall nicer than digital. Personal preference though.
Incomprehension of fraction to decimal conversion is why 90% of people who say they are bad at math, say they are bad at math
I feel called out. I was in high-school Calculus (11th grade) before I “truly” understood fractions. Like, I honestly somehow managed to make it to Calculus without knowing how to add and subtract fractions without a calculator. Thought I was dumb in math until 9th grade algebra, and didn’t start becoming a bit of a math nerd until Calculus
Kids these days do absolutely still know how to read analog clocks.
Besides, they probably shouldn’t put effort into that. Those things are close to useless nowadays. It’s mostly a case of schools being conservative… but then, it’s not that much of an effort, so there are more important things to care about.
I do know how to read an analog clock, but I dont read it subconciously, because my brain works on digital time, so I will have to look at it and then figure out what that time is if it were on a digital clock.
So if I see an analog clock I would rather look at my phone because that is just quicker than doing the conversion.
If you want to know more, look at the video Technology Connections (2?) did about it.
I’m guessing they know how, but it’s not as quick as just glancing at it. I mean fuck I’m in my 40s but that’s true for me, too.
Not sure about that. For high school math it is still quite important that students are familiar with circles and angles on circles. Analogue clocks are a gentle introduction to this.
Actually, a lot don’t. I mean, like, at least fifty percent. You would be surprised. I don’t think it’s schools being conservative so much as it didn’t occur to teachers and staff that analogue clocks are frankly obsolete (I still like them). I didn’t read this article, but it sounds like that’s being corrected.
Anyways, I really respect your attitude that it’s not worth getting bent out of shape or spending a lot of time on, I think you’re right. A lot of people get precious about it or, worse, make fun of kids like they’re stupid because they haven’t wasted their time learning to read, essentially, a sundial.
If we only taught things that were “useful” then we’d be discarding half the curriculum. Stuff like history, art, and how a fucking analog clock works, is worth teaching, even if it’s not something everyone uses every day.
Anyone who wants to understand how to read an analog clock can learn it in two minutes, it’s not like you need to be taught in school. edit to add: My brother recently told me that he was at the library and his friend’s teenage daughter looked at the analog clock and said indignantly “I can’t read that!” So apparently it is true that people aren’t learning simple skills like this.
Honest question; why would they? Digital clocks and watches are have been cheaper and more accurate (and as a result more ubiquitous) for many years now. I think there’s a strong argument that analogue clocks are obsolete, and that’s why teens and kids aren’t learning to read them.
Are all public clocks in the US digital clocks? Off the top of my head, I can tell you 4 locations within walking distance that have analog clocks, one of them being the train station.
The point is the instinct to check phone for the time is so strong that they’re not looking around for clocks.
Nope, it still seems like most of the ones I see are analog, as in my library example. Probably most people ignore them and just check their phones for the time since they are constantly looking at them anyway.
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Digital vs. analog watches that run on batteries are no more or less accurate because of how the time is displayed. I have a digital clock display on my battery-powered cordless phone (yes I also have a landline) that is constantly plugged into a power source and it loses a minute or two every day. Your computer and phone only keep displaying the correct time because they frequently update themselves from an online source.
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It’s true. I teach college kids, and a couple of years ago my class was taking a midterm. The room didn’t have a clock so I put my watch on the document camera display so they’d know how much time was left. A girl in the front row asked me what time it was, because she couldn’t tell time. After she turned in her test, thinking she must be kind of embarrassed about this, I told her I’d be happy to teach her how to tell time. She gave me a look like “ok, boomer” and said no thanks.
Yeah that girl is going places in life. Though probably not on time.
So, schools aren’t even capable of teaching students how to read clocks anymore?
Schools have more important things to teach kids with the limited time they have
No, screw that whataboutism. When I went to school, I learned so much information that is virtually useless to most people, and not nearly enough skills and knowledge that would actually be helpful in daily life. I would like to see the situation improve for future generations.
Analogue clocks are everywhere and being able to read them is still important. Besides, if schools aren’t even capable of teaching something so simple to students, I think that calls into question their ability to teach far more complex things.
How is that whataboutism?
It’s not that schools have become unable to teach kids to read analog clocks or kids have become unable to learn it. It’s not that they can’t it’s that they don’t
But speaking of whataboutism, your argument is literally “well what about all the useless stuff that I learned in school???”
How about they stop teaching useless stuff, and the first things they can throw out are cursive and analog clocks.We also need to teach them how to write in cursive so they can read the declaration of independence.
It’s because analog clocks are becoming obsolete. You can scream about the young peoples all you want but that’s the reality.
I’m not screaming about the young people; I was “the young people” not that long ago. Not everyone who criticizes education is an out of touch boomer resisting every societal change.
Actually, analogue clocks have been obsoleted in almost every way by digital clocks for at least half a century, as digital wristwatches first hit the market in the 1970s. And yet, analogue clocks are still found everywhere. Classes, stores, train stations, homes, offices, not to mention the majority of wristwatches, still mostly use analogue clocks. In fact, excluding screens, I wouldn’t be surprised if most people came across more analogue clocks than digital clocks on a daily basis. They’re technologically obsolete, but haven’t fallen out of use.
Sorry I just assumed this was more boomer shitting on the youngins like usual so that’s my bad.
I have to have an analog clock within sight in the morning. When I first wake up I’m too tired and bleary eyed to think about numbers but I know what angle the minute hand will be at when I have leave to catch the bus to work. When you’re familiar with an analog clock it’s far more user friendly than looking at some numbers and have to do some math. Sure it’s simple math, but first thing in the morning, I’d rather just glance at the minute hand and when I see the angle I just know.
So I don’t think it’s not going away despite it being obsolete, it’s not going away because it’s more user friendly. Sure there’s a learning curve, but once you’ve gotten the hang of it, it’s a more efficient way for a human to get a sense of time, which in many cases is more important than having a numerical representation of time.
Perhaps the fact that we pay them like 30 grand a year is a factor? That’s how much my one bedroom apartment costs 😂 there’s no money left over for food or loans or electricity or gas
Financial stress has been proven to make you dumber
They are creating more and more idiots out there. The trend of “Help, our students don’t understand xyz, let’s stop teaching that immediately!” is disgusting. Maybe think of teaching it in a different way or just spending more time on that topic?
I don’t believe this for a second. You can literally just look at it and intuitively understand. Not to mention part of the standard elementary school curriculum is how to read a clock.
Analog clocks are like cursive, there isn’t any real world benefit so it seems like we should spend that effort on one of the many other things that schools could teach.
I feel like there’s a bit of a difficulty difference. One requires basic spacial understanding. The other requires hundreds of hours of practice to become good. Nevertheless, learning both is a good idea for different reasons. Activating your brains via fine hand coordination is a great activity for children.
As a comparison, think about how much writing chinese children have to learn in school. They don’t come out as exactly poorly educated, rather vice versa. Then again, the competetiveness in chinese schools is pretty brutal, at least if I can trust what my chinese colleagues have told me.
I shouldn’t say there is no value in learning cursive or analog clocks, I just want to say that analog/cursive is being taught in place of more valuable lessons.
They look nice. Some of them anyway, not specifically school clocks which I mentally associate with “when is this day going to fucking end?” But reading a clock is not a difficult skill that takes a long time to teach.
It’s somewhat easy to teach, but also it’s not a useful skill. If someone likes how analog clocks work, then they can learn it on their own time, since it’s easy.
on their own time
Nice
bruh I can read analogue clocks and I’m gen z. it’s probably rage bait though, so who cares :/
Who cares. Analog audio, video, phones, all out the window. Next people will be complaining people don’t even know anything about vacuum tubes. Digital clocks are easier to read and make more fuckin sense. Leave the kids alone. 🙄🙄🙄
I’m a millenial and I can read analog clocks, but it takes me a few seconds, it’s not as instant as with digital ones.
“Roman numerals to be phased out”
… Damn gen WW1
OK let’s have a lesson for those who find this difficult. First, remember that little kids pick this up quickly and easily, so you can too!
We all know there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day, right? and that the day is divided into the a.m. of 12 hours and the p.m. of 12 hours.
So analog clocks show those 12 hours as the numbers 1-12 evenly spaced around the clock face. Now look a little closer and you see it’s also divided into 60 marks with a tick mark for each of the 60 seconds/minute or 60 minutes/hour. Hang on, we’re almost there!
The little hand points to the HOUR number (1-12). If it’s in between two numbers, that means the time is in between those two hours.
The big hand points to the MINUTE tick mark. Notice that the 1-12 numbers coincide with each 5th tick mark so it’s easy to count them. Just count by 5’s! So if the big hand is between the 3 and the 4, that means the minute of the hour is between 15 and 20, look at which tick mark for the exact minute.
Now, can you figure out how the second hand works? Good! Kindergarten dismissed!
/s
Back to kindergarten then.
Recommend we call Clockwise “cap” and Counterclockwise “no cap”
That works for “righty tighty, lefty loosey” as well
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