Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise?

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  • Опубліковано 15 січ 2025

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  • @TodayIFoundOut
    @TodayIFoundOut  6 років тому

    Ready to learn more fun and fascinating facts? Then check out this video and find out Why We Say “O’Clock”:
    ua-cam.com/video/2YKrILmZz7E/v-deo.html

  • @erictaylor5462
    @erictaylor5462 8 років тому +64

    Duh! Because if they didn't run clockwise they would be clock stupid, and nobody will trust a stupid clock.

    • @curious.george08
      @curious.george08 8 років тому +4

      Makes complete sense

    • @erictaylor5462
      @erictaylor5462 8 років тому +4

      Jubin John
      My mother had a Goofy watch that ran the other way around.

    • @JimFortune
      @JimFortune 7 років тому

      Eric Taylor She got it at Aussie Disney.

  • @sebradfield
    @sebradfield 5 років тому +2

    I study a lot, and do a lot of research, sometimes for projects, and sometimes for fun. No matter how much you learn, you'll never know everything. Thanks for teaching this old man something he never even thought about before, let alone tried to find out. Simon, you rock!

  • @martinpaulsen1592
    @martinpaulsen1592 8 років тому +2

    Because clockwise means "the direction a clock turns". If clocks went the other way, that would be "clockwise". Actually, one can find clocks which are built to turn counterclockwise, although they have become less common. Some are just built that way as novelties, but more common are barbershop clocks. Their hands turn counterclockwise and their faces are reversed, because they are meant to be hung on the back wall of a barbershop and read in the mirrors which line the front.

  • @jamescoffey5330
    @jamescoffey5330 8 років тому +10

    I was hoping you'd mention Grace Hopper. She had a clock that ran backwards.
    "Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, "We've always done it this way." I try to fight that. That's why I have a clock on my wall that runs counter-clockwise."
    Grace Hopper.
    She was in the forefront of early modern computers in the 1940's through the 1980's.

    • @josugambee3701
      @josugambee3701 8 років тому +2

      My dad gave me a watch where the numbers are printed on rotating rings, so whatever number is facing up is what minute and hour it is. Now i'm wondering why we didn't all just do this in the first place.

    • @johnwang9914
      @johnwang9914 8 років тому +1

      James Coffey
      Grace Hopper also insisted that every word could be a simple three letter word. How can you tell that computers were mostly at the machine and assembly language stage when she was working with them.

    • @CrimsonTide001
      @CrimsonTide001 8 років тому +2

      Early clock hands were probably meant to replicate the shadows that sundials used. Early mechanical clocks were pretty much just mechanical sundials, probably originally designed to be used where sunlight wasn't so reliable (due to weather) or available (indoors).

    • @jfan4reva
      @jfan4reva 8 років тому

      John Wang: and then she created the most verbose computer language invented (so far).
      I wonder if she was left-handed. I've seen 'lefty' clocks that run counter clockwise.

    • @BTheBlindRef
      @BTheBlindRef 8 років тому +1

      Doing things different just because they are different is just as stupid as doing things the same just because they are the same. Neither is terribly noble, profound, or useful.

  • @CallieMasters5000
    @CallieMasters5000 8 років тому +5

    I don't know what the hell you're talking about half the time, but I do really enjoy your speaking voice & pronunciation. You make everything sound more interesting that it probably is.

  • @charlietuba
    @charlietuba 8 років тому +3

    There was a book that came out in the 1980s about this and other things: "Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? and Other Imponderables." I saw the author, David Feldman, on one of the morning shows. I meet him later when he came into the book store that I worked in at the time. He asked me if we had the book. I told him, "No. Do I know you?" to which he said "No," then I said "You're the author!"

  • @bentoth9555
    @bentoth9555 8 років тому +129

    They move clockwise because that's what we would call the direction they run no matter which way it actually was. :P

    • @johnwang9914
      @johnwang9914 8 років тому +5

      Ben Toth
      Good point Ben, even if they ran in the other direction, we would call that direction clockwise but the point is that even early clocks emulated the direction of the shadows on a sun dial, it wasn't like which side of a car is the driver side where early cars were split between left and right and we simply settled on one over time, there was a pre-existing bias to the direction a clock's hands turned because of the Sun dial.

    • @aussiebloke609
      @aussiebloke609 8 років тому +2

      A very good point. And for those people who spoke lowland Scots, the old terms were "widdershins" for anticlockwise, and "deiseal" for what we now call clockwise - used to denote a direction of turning.

    • @bloodandwinearered
      @bloodandwinearered 8 років тому +3

      Yes, but had man advanced more rapidly in the southern hemisphere, clocks would run in the opposite direction.

    • @bentoth9555
      @bentoth9555 8 років тому +6

      Which, because of how language works, would then be called clockwise.

    • @bigbenhebdomadarius6252
      @bigbenhebdomadarius6252 7 років тому +1

      +John Wang But even in your example of which side of the car is the driver's, there was existing precedent. In Britain and many European countries, horsemen passed on the left so as to have their sword or gun hand in the direction of possible danger, most people being right-handed. In the colonies, however, it seems that farmers leading their cattle along the road would pass on the right, so that the two drivers would be between the animals, thus minimizing the risk of trouble. Still seems a bit risky to me; I mean, I wouldn't want to be caught between two bulls who took a dislike to each other!

  • @akaSlasher
    @akaSlasher 8 років тому +6

    Added note with AM/PM -- 12:00 p.m. for noon and 12:00 a.m. for midnight are both incorrect. Those two are the two meridians -- they are not pre or post meridian. The times are correctly written as 12:00 noon and 12:00 midnight, respectively. But digital displays would have to larger and a bit more complex, both of which increase cost. Thus the incorrect denotations.
    The 24-hour clock (often incorrectly referred to "military clocks" in the US) eliminate the problem by numbering each hour. So, as most folks know, 12:00 noon on the 12-hour clock is 12:00 on the 24-hour clock; midnight has two numbers -- 00:00 for something beginning at midnight, and 24:00 for something ending at midnight; this eliminates confusion and makes it easier to calculate elapsed or total time.

    • @Ts6451
      @Ts6451 8 років тому +5

      How long do is the period of time between AM and PM going to be on this hypothetical digital clock? I mean, the meridians are not periods of time, but points, are they not?
      For a digital clock that would mean the meridians are essentially the instant that the waveform from the clock's oscillator passes from what is counted as a logic 0 to a logic 1(or the opposite if it's counters uses falling edge) when going from 11:59 to 12:00, and by the time that the display shows this, it is quite definitively PM or AM as the case may be.

    • @BertGrink
      @BertGrink 8 років тому

      +akaSlasher YESSSSS! FINALLY someone who understands this. I have tried several times, unsuccessfully i might add, to tell my friends from AM/PM countries about this, and it has always annoyed me that the won't listen.

    • @carultch
      @carultch 8 років тому +1

      Why do people who speak "military time" always refer to the top of the hour as "hundred", when they know damn well that the hour has nothing to do with 100?

    • @0LoneTech
      @0LoneTech 7 років тому +2

      carultch because it's military shorthand for followed by two noughts, and apparently easier to say.

    • @rowynnecrowley1689
      @rowynnecrowley1689 6 років тому

      well, if it's one second past, then it's not the meridian anymore, right?

  • @Falney
    @Falney 8 років тому +15

    I've heard that clocks run counter-clockwise in Australia.

    • @jfan4reva
      @jfan4reva 8 років тому +9

      Yes, but they're all upside down, so it looks just fine to them! ;)

  • @tryithere
    @tryithere 8 років тому +6

    A Sundial on the Equator is right two times a day.

  • @therealcornkid
    @therealcornkid 8 років тому +1

    Great videos!

  • @Larry
    @Larry 8 років тому +80

    Since when do Brits use the term "counter clockwise"?

    • @XanCrews
      @XanCrews 8 років тому +12

      Larry Bundy Jr I've noticed between this and his other channel that he uses a lot of American words in his videos. I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices things like this.

    • @Larry
      @Larry 8 років тому +8

      XanCrews
      I suppose it's more simple for Americans. Even pronounciations. I had a load of Americans get all pissy with me as they insisted I pronounced "Patent" wrong.

    • @XanCrews
      @XanCrews 8 років тому +4

      Larry Bundy Jr Yeah, I could see that. I never understood just how strongly some people react to other people's native dialect.

    • @Larry
      @Larry 8 років тому +14

      XanCrews
      It probably just sounds wrong after them hearing it for so many years, I fine Americans pronouncing Herbs without the H still really weird :D
      Also, many moonsago I was playing Counter-Strike and some American kid told me he liked my accent, and when I thanked him and said I liked his, he screamed down the mic "AMERICANS DON'T HAVE ACCENTS!"

    • @XanCrews
      @XanCrews 8 років тому +1

      Larry Bundy Jr Fair enough. I seem to have an unhealthy amount of Brits in my UA-cam feed, so a lot of the more commonly used words like zed (unless talking about the ZX Spectrum) and anti-clockwise dont even register when accompanied by the proper accent but some other words like oestrogen rather than estrogen just sound wrong.

  • @TdyYrLove
    @TdyYrLove 8 років тому +6

    I've often wondered why we decided the 12 would be midday. Seems more logical to start the 0 hour at sunrise with 12:00 being sunset.

    • @rodtoler
      @rodtoler 8 років тому +3

      As a Merchant Mariner I can tell you that this would never work. All though it sounds like a good plan. You see, sunrise and Sunset are at a different time every day since the earth does not care how long a second is and the Earth's axis to the Sun changes with it's orbit. It is also different depending on your geographical location on the planet. The length of daylight period at any place at any date can be judged by the portion of the latitudinal parallel that falls within the lighted half of the earth relative to the half that fall into the dark (Night).This is why, when I was a kid in Florida, bed time at 9 p.m. was black as pitch outside. When we visited family in Ohio or Montreal, Canada I would complain that it couldn't be bed tome because the sun was still up. I have sailed north of the British Isles a few years ago. The sun set at 11:30 pm and rose at 04:10 a.m.. Just a little over kill FYI

    • @johnwang9914
      @johnwang9914 8 років тому +4

      TdyYrLove
      Due to the tilt of the Earth, sunrise and sunset varies with the season hence noon is the only time of the day that could be accurately defined. As to why they flipped the origin of the day to midnight, I can only surmise that they felt morning and afternoon were obviously the same day. The twelve hours probably pertained to the twelve constellations which also progressed around the observer through the night and though they were not visible during the day, early man probably suspected that they were still there and still progressing around them, a logical projection as the brighter stars and the Moon are often still visible during the early morning and late evening.

    • @bigbenhebdomadarius6252
      @bigbenhebdomadarius6252 7 років тому +3

      In classical antiquity and well into the Middle Ages, the day was divided into twelve "hours," from sunrise to sunset, the length of the hours varying with the time of year. Thus you can read in the Bible that Christ was hoisted up onto the cross at the "sixth hour" or noon, and died at the "ninth hour," which was somewhere in the vicinity of three p.m. (The date was Nissan 14, which was probably sometime in April.)
      The night was similarly divided, but that hardly mattered in a society without electric lights. Most people would have gone to bed by dusk. At least among Jews, the new day was considered to start at sunset (or perhaps not until dusk) for Biblical reasons, and the idea still persists as a liturgical custom in the Christian Church, as well as in Judaism. But with the advent of mechanical time-keeping, the idea of a twenty-four hour day was retained, but it made sense to align the middle of the horological day with the middle of the sidereal day, or noon, thus putting twelve o'clock at noon and midnight by the clock in the middle of the night.

    • @2adamast
      @2adamast 7 років тому

      The Japanese had sunrise to sunset mechanical clocks

    • @rechargeandrelax1618
      @rechargeandrelax1618 6 років тому

      John Wang, your idea of "morning and afternoon being the same day" is logical.
      It makes sense that the "new day" would start long after most chores and commerce are completed. It's the same principle behind changing to (or from) daylight savings time at 2:00 AM. However, it would be difficult to accurately estimate the time of midnight before the wide adoption of mechanical clocks. Prior to that, the idea of the day starting at sunrise would have been more useful.

  • @blob1190
    @blob1190 8 років тому

    This was really educational, thank you! I love all the extra bits of info you give at the end :D

  • @vondarkmoor1
    @vondarkmoor1 8 років тому +1

    Growing up i always looked at AM/PM as "At morning" and "Past morning" to help remember which was which.

  • @PokemonErnie
    @PokemonErnie 8 років тому +1

    good work.

  • @josugambee3701
    @josugambee3701 8 років тому +7

    Clocks run clockwise because if they ran the other way, we'd all call the other direction clockwise and still be asking the same question.

  • @klugshicer
    @klugshicer 8 років тому +1

    They do it per definition.

  • @rparl
    @rparl 8 років тому

    Years ago I got a haircut in a barbershop where they had a clock which (a) ran counterclockwise and (b) had mirror images of the numbers. While getting cut, you spent most of your time facing the long mirror on the wall opposite the clock.

  • @ernestbywater411
    @ernestbywater411 8 років тому +1

    The use of bells to tell time goes back way before the use of clocks. The larger church institutions like monasteries rang bells to call the members to worship at regular times during the day, and everyone within hearing soon learned to know what time it was by which service the bells were calling people to worship for. BTW The monks etc. usually knew the time by using candles which burned at a set rate marked on the side.

  • @B3Band
    @B3Band 8 років тому +10

    Because if they ran counter-clockwise, then we'd call counter-clockwise clockwise, so they would still run clockwise. Duh!

  • @anthonymacleod8829
    @anthonymacleod8829 8 років тому +3

    thanks for the information. and Simon I have a question for you? since you do several chanel's, do you ever get the shirts mixed up? lol.

  • @dundun8640
    @dundun8640 8 років тому

    Now this is the type of content i'm looking for from u guys. :)

  • @passerbypassinbi
    @passerbypassinbi 8 років тому +31

    Now my question is why do Americans say "counterclockwise" while the British say "anticlockwise"?

    • @bigdickpornsuperstar
      @bigdickpornsuperstar 8 років тому +22

      Especially when we all know the proper word is "widdershins".

    • @TheSam1902
      @TheSam1902 8 років тому

      Günther Tuben counter- --> German (or close origin)
      anti- --> Latin
      UK is closer from Europe than US

    • @factsverse9957
      @factsverse9957 8 років тому +2

      Günther Tuben Btw every clock is always clockwise no matter what.

    • @NarwahlGaming
      @NarwahlGaming 8 років тому +4

      We didn't fight an entire war just to adopt our former oppressors' lifestyle.

    • @passerbypassinbi
      @passerbypassinbi 8 років тому +1

      mahnarch That's a good point and all, but how did the term come into fruition?

  • @DanceSeek
    @DanceSeek 8 років тому

    Before we had clocks, we still had names for those directions. "Deosil" was the word for clockwise or sunwise, and the opposite direction was "widdershins". Deosil was considered a "correct" direction, as it imitated the natural movement of the sun, and widdershins picked up the connotation of unnatural, defective, or wicked. I first noticed this word in old fairy tales, where people were told walk widdershins around an object to trigger enchantments, probably because of the idea that magical workings were against nature.

  • @fireangel6038
    @fireangel6038 6 років тому

    Answering the questions I've never asked. Thank you

  • @YT-Observer
    @YT-Observer 7 років тому

    meridian relates to longitude.
    anti-meridian
    is when the sun shines before,East (lower) of the meridian noon is when the sun shines directly on the meridian (peak hight). Post meridian is after the meridian when the sun shines west of the meridian (lower)

  • @DiThi
    @DiThi 7 років тому

    My thought process:
    - I wonder why **click on the video**
    - **less than one second passes**
    - Ah of course, shadow dials and sun movement on the northern sky.

  • @SirKenchalot
    @SirKenchalot 8 років тому +18

    Great video again guys. So why do records, CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays and computer hard and floppy disks all rotate clockwise? Are we just sticking with that direction now? Most tapes run the other way! On a similar but not entirely related note, I see a lot of nonsense online about how GPS works, people talk as if your cell phone bounces a signal off each satellite to calculate it's distance there from but this isn't true at all, it's actually much more complex and may be worth a video, along with a discussion of the newer versions of GPS on the horizon, as it were. Also, why do most trains travel on the left even in countries that drive on the right? Also is a vegetarian diet better for humans? If so, where do we get protein from? And, why do overcharged lithium iron batteries burst into flames e.g. those in Samsung Galaxy Note 7, Boewing 787 Dreamliners and Dell Laptops.

    • @Gorgonzeye
      @Gorgonzeye 8 років тому +2

      All life is constructed from protein, not just animals.

    • @johnwang9914
      @johnwang9914 8 років тому +2

      Andy Kench
      Trains run on the left so that the right side faces the station platform in much the same way that the right side of a bus faces the bus stop on the curb. Perhaps the original intent might've been to allow shuttle buses to use the same stations should there be maintenance issues or to modify existing bus coaches for use as train coaches (this was actually done in the UK), but of course, the adoption of high platform trains and passenger doors on both sides obviated much of the rational, this may change as low platform trains are now the vogue. GPS is actually far simpler, a signal is simply sent from each satellite at times determined by internal atomic clocks, the signal doesn't actually have to carry any information as the location is just calculated from the difference in times the signals from multiple satellites are received, you could say that the calculation of the time from nothing more than discrepancies in times that the signals are received but when it was presented to me in engineering class, I was just amazed by how simple it was and as signals from more satellites are received for the alleged same time yet received by the receiver at discrepant time, more information could be inferred, the professor would joke about how enough satellites issuing nothing more than a beep might even tell you what you had for breakfast. GPS is literally just a beep from multiple satellites. Of course, modern GPS encodes the time output of the atomic click in the beep. Tapes typically rotated clockwise on the supply reel and anticlockwise on the take-up reel, you see this most clearly on the old open track 9 track computer reels or the old open track audio tapes of the 60's, you also see it on the audio cassette tapes popular in the 70's and 80's and it's also true of the VCR tapes popular in the 80's and 90's though you may think otherwise as the read head location are on the other side with those cassettes. I actually can't think of a tape technology where forward play was not clockwise on the supply reel, even the 8 track audio of the 70's where the supply reel was the take-up reel operated in a clockwise direction on forward play. I have no idea how you might think tape drives were mostly counterclockwise, they are not, they are mostly clockwise.

    • @johnwang9914
      @johnwang9914 8 років тому +3

      Andy Kench
      Lithium ion was always thought to be a risky way to make a battery. The reason why we have lithium ion batteries was that Sony was a major manufacturer of magnetic tapes and looked for alternative products for the expensive machinery used to make magnetic tapes and lithium ion required thin layers be manufactured which is what making tapes does hence Sony made the lithium ion battery. This also got around the industry mandate that batteries should be made in the standardized battery sizes which we in North America call the D, C, AA, AAA, and AAAA formats (9 V batteries are six sub AAAA batteries wired in series, sub means without a hump on the positive end and are used to be soldered into a product). The original Prius used D cell nickel metal hydride batteries because if the lithium ion battery was formulated for safety and reliability, it would have no more energy density than a nickel metal hydride battery but of course with people accustomed to lithium ion batteries even though technically the nickel metal hydride was the better choice, the Prius and electric vehicles in general moved to more dangerous and less reliable lithium ion batteries. The move also meant it would be harder for the user to just repair a failed cell for a few dollars and would have to replace the entire proprietary battery pack for perhaps $10,000 to $30,000 dollars. Bottom, line for why our mobile lithium ion batteries catch on fire, consumers are stupid and companies just want to make money.

    • @_Piers_
      @_Piers_ 8 років тому

      GPS is rather more interesting than suggested above!
      Because of the speed the satellites travel (c.14,000km/h) at and their distance from the planet (c.20,000 km), general and special relatively need to be taken into account :)

    • @jfan4reva
      @jfan4reva 8 років тому +1

      Andy Kench; CD's are the creation of the music recording industry, whose vinyl records rotate clockwise. When the movie industry was looking around for a small disk format, CDs were a natural choice for DVDs since the manufacturing equipment already existed, and their capacity had expanded to the point where they could store an entire movie. So, the short answer is: tradition.
      Trains run on the left? Subway trains in the U.S. run on the right and have doors on both sides to accommodate center platforms.
      Why do lithium ION (not iron) batteries burst into flames when overcharged? Because when they're overcharged they produce excessive heat, which makes them charge faster, which produces even more excessive heat which makes them charge even faster, and the cycle continues until things vaporize and the hot flammable vapors ignite.
      My question is; why does the UA-cam spelling checker insist on using the British spelling for words like center (centre), vapor (vapour), and aluminum (aluminium)? You'd think they would know what country users live in, and how the words a spelled locally. Of course, the UA-cam spelling checker also flags 'UA-cam' as an error and insists it be spelled as 'you tube' or 'you-tube'. LOL!

  • @chinareds54
    @chinareds54 8 років тому +9

    You call it "saving someone having to climb the steps and wind it 800 revolutions per winding three times per week". Others would say it's just another case of automation replacing someone's job. :p

    • @bigbenhebdomadarius6252
      @bigbenhebdomadarius6252 7 років тому

      No, because the clock-winder himself was the one pushing for the change. His justification was that the _clock_ wasn't being motorized, only the process of winding it. (He felt that motorizing the clock itself might affect its accuracy.) This chap and his son still make the trek up the stairs regularly to maintain the mechanism, but the winding motor has eliminated the need to climb all those steps several times a week.

    • @TheAnantaSesa
      @TheAnantaSesa 7 років тому

      1:27

    • @TheAnantaSesa
      @TheAnantaSesa 7 років тому

      Should have installed a zipline or firemans pole to ease the return trip.

  • @louiswouters71
    @louiswouters71 8 років тому

    Cool! Never thought about how they could have going the other way round.

  • @KD1inOlympia
    @KD1inOlympia 8 років тому

    I also enjoy your voice.Recently travelled to Europe and wondered - what did the countries in the EU do with their money; pounds, lira, etc, when they converted to the Euro?

  • @HunterShows
    @HunterShows 8 років тому

    I'm glancing at my digital alarm horologus and see that it's time for me to go to bed.

  • @Petra44YT
    @Petra44YT 7 років тому

    Wow! The video is over, and the TV ad is still on. Didn't realize they were that long.

  • @TheSam1902
    @TheSam1902 8 років тому

    Nowadays the word "cloque" remains in modern French but has a totally different meaning. To have a "cloque" mean to have some buttons on your foots because you hiked or simply walk for a long period of time. They are also referenced as "ampoules", literally "light bulbs" because they look quite the same.

  • @gsp0113
    @gsp0113 8 років тому

    Idea for a topic: Why do watch movements (the mechanical ones) have jewels? I remember often seeing "17 jewels" on the watches owned by father and grandfather. It's just kind of a weird thing that I've often wondered about. I could research it (of course), but I'd rather hear it from you because you're thorough and entertaining.

    • @7792pnaurfr
      @7792pnaurfr 2 роки тому

      Thank you for showing the problems of people today. Laziness at something so simple.

  • @christiangeiselmann
    @christiangeiselmann 8 років тому +5

    Now, that's a silly question. They are called clocks because they run clockwise. Otherwise they would be called counterclocks.

  • @JimBobJJonesJr
    @JimBobJJonesJr 8 років тому +13

    Why do we have am and pm instead of a 24 hour clock?

    • @katiekat4457
      @katiekat4457 8 років тому +2

      DerOldHerr Is the pattern America is retarded? And behind the times? I didn't mean the stupid pun in that.

    • @1pcfred
      @1pcfred 8 років тому +2

      If you think that America is so behind the times then please kindly get off our Internet that we invented. You can also stop using all devices that contain transistors too. The guy who made the first one of those was living in my home town when he did it. Yes, I am an American!

    • @christiangeiselmann
      @christiangeiselmann 8 років тому

      Paul Frederick Oh, what would I be doing without you and your home town! As my favourite daytime occupation is listening to public radio in my, yes!, old transistor radio receiver! Thank you!

    • @katiekat4457
      @katiekat4457 8 років тому +5

      Christian Geiselmann You are funny. Paul Frederick needs an identity of his own. He tried kicking me off the internet because apparently as an American he owes the internet. I'm American and if I want to make fun of America I will. He's very defensive about America and transistors. I wonder which inventor he is referring to? I hope it's the people from New Jersey because then I can really laugh at him because nobody is proud to be from New Jersey...well except him......lol

    • @1pcfred
      @1pcfred 8 років тому +2

      Katie Kat
      What are you still doing here?

  • @swirlcrop
    @swirlcrop 8 років тому

    This is a very good video. Thanks for posting it. :-)

  • @potawatomi100
    @potawatomi100 8 років тому

    Great video Simon. Also, why do we use 12/ 24 digit system to tell time. Why not employ a deca method to tell time: have a 20 hour day where wish hour has 100 minutes and each minute 100 seconds????

  • @spideraxis5582
    @spideraxis5582 7 років тому

    Thanks for explanation of origin for word "clock".

  • @yachtsovereign
    @yachtsovereign 8 років тому

    Here's a suggestion for a future episode along the same vein as this one: If analog clock faces were just mechanical representations of sundials in the northern hemisphere, why doesn't the hour hand of a clock go around once a day, as a sundial's shadow does? (Well, of course, there's no shadow at night, so the shadow doesn't really go all the way around, but I think you know what I mean.) By sundial logic, midnight should be when the hour hand on a mechanical clock points straight down. How did it become common practice that two revolutions of the hour hand on a clock equals one revolution of the sun, and both noon AND midnight are straight up?

  • @Darastrixen
    @Darastrixen 8 років тому

    The Sun Dial at 1:12 is from St. Michaels Mt. :D

  • @michael_17213
    @michael_17213 8 років тому

    I just saw this video playing at McDonald's, and I was like "Wait a minute! I know that channel!"

  • @seanisawesome000
    @seanisawesome000 8 років тому +1

    Now i want to buy a clock that moves counterclockwise.

  • @Quantiad
    @Quantiad 8 років тому

    Guessed sundial, came to check, awesomeness confirmed, goodbye.
    Not quite goodbye. Interested to hear the Latin word for clock, I now understand why the Dutch call a watch a 'horloge'. Nice.

  • @matthewrobinson4323
    @matthewrobinson4323 8 років тому

    topic idea: Until about 45 years ago roman Catholics were required to abstain from eating beef on Fridays. How did this practice/doctrine come about? What were the reasons for it?

  • @Puremindgames
    @Puremindgames 8 років тому

    I've always used Couter-Clockwise and Clockwise interchangably and use Anti-Clockwise for the otherway

  • @thediamondcreeper1413
    @thediamondcreeper1413 7 років тому

    As an American who is irritated by needing to deal with imperial units as I’ve grown to favor metrics through needing to use it and the convenience of not oh this is made of twelve inches, which gets confusing over larger distances, and enjoying the ease of metrics conversions, but still used to inches, I’ve started to wonder, why, just why, we are still one of three that use the imperial units.

  • @jimbo-fk4dq
    @jimbo-fk4dq 8 років тому

    Not sure if you've down it before, but a video on Military time and it's purpose would be interesting.

  • @pbezunartea
    @pbezunartea 8 років тому

    nice video!

  • @TheHummingbirder
    @TheHummingbirder 8 років тому

    I honestly think the direction of the clock dial is due to the fact most people are right-handed, and most languages read from left to right. Otherwise, the southern hemisphere would have developed clocks working the other way around.

  • @ZoggFromBetelgeuse
    @ZoggFromBetelgeuse 10 місяців тому

    This is strange because clocks are usually vertically mounted, and on vertically mounted sundials in the Northern Hemisphere, the shadow turns 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒆. How come vertical clocks were inspired by horizontal sundials?

  • @infrabread
    @infrabread 8 років тому

    A simple question to everyone: Draw a circle. That's it...
    But note the DIRECTION of the circle. Right-handed viewers will drew the circle counter-clockwise and the left handed viewers (Myself included) will draw it clockwise.

  • @cosmogoblin
    @cosmogoblin 6 років тому

    I'd like to see a video explaining how "noon" or "midday" aren't used correctly (due to Daylight Savings and the Equation of Time) please!

  • @confusedrhino9169
    @confusedrhino9169 8 років тому +25

    Ok, now u have to explain why sundials go counter clockwise in Australia

    • @AeaaaW
      @AeaaaW 8 років тому +17

      Because Australia is in the southern hemisphere

    • @TodayIFoundOut
      @TodayIFoundOut  8 років тому +9

      It has to do with the way you orient a sundial, see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundial#Sundials_in_the_Southern_Hemisphere

    • @tryithere
      @tryithere 8 років тому +5

      It's already in the video.

    • @EvelynDayless
      @EvelynDayless 8 років тому +18

      It's because they sink them with the rotation of their toilet water.

    • @Phlegmy1145
      @Phlegmy1145 8 років тому +11

      The way the water enters the toilet bowl determines which way the water rotates as the toilet flushes. The Coriolis Effect is simply not strong enough to actually make water overcome the direction it enters the toilet bowl.

  • @amritpalsingh517
    @amritpalsingh517 8 років тому

    Yes! I knew this has something to do with a sun dial!!

  • @Nightkrowler
    @Nightkrowler 8 років тому

    Before I watch the Video (paused it at 0:01) I can answer this question legitimately.
    It runs CLOCKWISE, because that's how we humans called the direction, it runs. If it ran the other way round (from right to left, so to say), this would be the way, a clock ran, so we would call the now called "counter clock wise" the "clockwise" and the other way around. :)

  • @MultiSteveB
    @MultiSteveB 8 років тому

    I noted that the Wells Cathedral Clock has a face with 24 hours (1-12 twice), which I would expect means they also had to use the AM/PM notation as well. When did the "military time" clock with continuous numbering in place of AM/PM notation come about?
    When in the history of clocks did it become common for them to have only a single set of 1-12 hour markings?
    Also, why does the Wells Cathedral Clock use 'IIII' for 4 instead of 'IV' when it does use 'IX' for 9?

  • @KingsleyIII
    @KingsleyIII 8 років тому +4

    How else would they go?

    • @Belboz99
      @Belboz99 8 років тому +9

      Anticlockwise?

  • @marcusvachon845
    @marcusvachon845 7 років тому

    Here is an idea for an episode, explain why we use the phrase Prime Meridian when speaking of O degrees longitude?

  • @caitlinliddell839
    @caitlinliddell839 7 років тому +1

    Why do we call the things that store stuff in desks and the like "drawers" when we're not drawing anything? I suppose it comes from "withdrawing" the article of clothing from its storage space? But what about the other slang meanings of it, such as pants in some parts of the US?

    • @hammerbellsong9745
      @hammerbellsong9745 6 років тому +2

      Caitlin Liddell The word "draw" can also mean "pull" (as in "to draw water from a well"). Perhaps the noun comes from the verb for accessing the contents?

  • @d.e.b.b5788
    @d.e.b.b5788 8 років тому +3

    Because if they turned the other way, it would be called clockstupid?

  • @Jeronimous84
    @Jeronimous84 8 років тому

    Do we read from left to right in the northern-hemisphere languages because the direction of the numbers on the clock?

  • @jamesfunk7614
    @jamesfunk7614 7 років тому

    I gave that same explanation. Someone said I was wrong, citing Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point."

  • @SouravTechLabs
    @SouravTechLabs 8 років тому +2

    Can we measure the weight of fire?

    • @carultch
      @carultch 8 років тому +1

      Fire does have a weight, but because it is positively buoyant in air, it is not possible to measure it with conventional scales.
      One way you could measure a fire's weight, is to start with a solid state fuel and oxidizer, measure before it burns, and then burn it in a vacuum. Now let it cool to room temperature and measure the weight of the ash left over. The difference is the total throughput of gas state products.

    • @grahvis
      @grahvis 8 років тому

      Many years ago I worked in a reseach laboratory dealing with leather.
      We used to analyse samples and one was to measure the ash content.

    • @TheAnantaSesa
      @TheAnantaSesa 7 років тому

      How many "mohs" of hardness is fire? Is there a "diet fire" or low cal alternative? How bout gluten free fire?

  • @arielgonzalez1636
    @arielgonzalez1636 7 років тому

    I think about a lot of random stuff but I have never thought about this

  • @CrazyBear65
    @CrazyBear65 6 років тому

    You should do one about ante- vs anti-... Antepasto or antipasta? Antebellum or anti bellum? Etc.

  • @DanDart
    @DanDart 8 років тому

    Wow, I lived near Wells until about 2010 and can't remember if I knew at the time :p

  • @348joey
    @348joey 7 років тому

    This channel is essentially the Imponderables books.

  • @ffeellixisfine7277
    @ffeellixisfine7277 7 років тому

    Hey Simon - An idea: Why do we say When shit hits the fan?
    Thanks!

    • @TheAnantaSesa
      @TheAnantaSesa 7 років тому

      Imagine the result. Is it desirable or not? The poop hole is in the ceiling over the fan. I heard the joke as a kid but forgot it. Might have been a "white man, black man, and a pollock" joke.

  • @B3Band
    @B3Band 8 років тому +2

    Back in the day there was a Bill Clinton wristwatch that ran backwards

    • @rickdevault2535
      @rickdevault2535 7 років тому

      Now we have a Hilliary Clinton which is a broken clock because she won't run again.

  • @cOr3t3ecks
    @cOr3t3ecks 5 років тому

    You could and should have followed this video with one titled "Why do we think that North is UP?" Guess you stopped thinking for a sec there Simon. (or should I say Simple Simon?) heheheh

  • @fgregerfeaxcwfeffece
    @fgregerfeaxcwfeffece 7 років тому

    you forget to mention the german version which also uses ck : Glocke(yes, also bell)

  • @jimbronaugh
    @jimbronaugh 8 років тому

    There is a movement, of which I am a part, to reverse the accepted rotation of all clocks. This would give us more time during the day and help relieve stress from our busy days. The present clockwise connotation is taken from the rotation of the flat disk of the earth as it rides on the back of Helios the tortoise as it moves through space. Reversing the direction of clocks will reverse the rotation of the disk and move the Earth back to a more livable and human time. Join in and demand that the direction of clock rotation be changed.

  • @ralphjohnson2023
    @ralphjohnson2023 8 років тому

    It bothers me that many people describe Noon as 12 AM and Midnight as 12 PM (or is it the other way around). Noon and Midnight are neither AM nor PM leading to confusion when a time stamp or clock indicates 12:00. It would be much simpler to return to the older terminology of 12 Noon and 12Midnight or simply adopt the 24 hour clock for general use (hospitals, the military and other 24 hour concerns).

    • @ralphjohnson2023
      @ralphjohnson2023 8 років тому

      the hospitals etc. already use the 24 hour clock.

    • @Fulano-bo8vc
      @Fulano-bo8vc 8 років тому

      Ralph Johnson Here where I live (Brazil) we use the 24h clock. We don't use the 12h am/pm.

  • @DutchDread
    @DutchDread 8 років тому

    Fun fact, even though "klok" does still mean "clock" in Dutch, a watch we call a "horloge", which probably comes from horalogia.

    • @JayTemple
      @JayTemple 8 років тому

      The Spanish word for "watch" is "reloj". I'm wondering if that's a corruption of "horologia."

    • @billysgeo
      @billysgeo 8 років тому

      JayTemple it most probably is!!!

    • @BertGrink
      @BertGrink 8 років тому

      We also use it this way in Danish, e.g. the phrase "hvad er klokken?" means 'what time is it?'; or this phrase "lad os mødes klokken 12" means 'let us meet at 12 o'clock'.

    • @JayTemple
      @JayTemple 8 років тому

      The other cognates in that sentence are interesting too.

  • @yantantetherer37
    @yantantetherer37 8 років тому

    Awe, I knew all that already!

  • @mikelisbalodis8937
    @mikelisbalodis8937 3 роки тому

    I always knew this was incorrect, but I remembered the difference between AM and PM by calling one ''At Morning'' and the other ''Post Morning''...

  • @Yorgarazgreece
    @Yorgarazgreece 8 років тому

    surprised when I first found out that clocks in UK don't run anti-clockwise

  • @OptimusPhillip
    @OptimusPhillip 4 роки тому

    Prediction: it's the direction that the shadow of a sundial moves in the Northern hemisphere, and thus when the mechanical clock was invented, it was made to run in that direction to mimic the sundial.

  • @Admiralhall2000
    @Admiralhall2000 8 років тому

    You can use watches and the sun to navigate in the northern hemisphere. Point the hour hand at the Sun and half way between that and 12 on the dial will be south.

  • @im.empimp
    @im.empimp 7 років тому

    +Today I Found Out
    Why do we have am and pm instead of a 24 hour clock?
    Why do we go from 11am to 12pm and then to 1pm? (Likewise 11pm -> 12am -> 1am)

  • @684684681
    @684684681 8 років тому

    Thus the old Roman saying, "As useful as an Australian sundial." lol

    • @treyforest2466
      @treyforest2466 8 років тому

      Yeshe Wangpo Romans knew about Australia? Everything I know about history is wrong!

  • @saginaw60
    @saginaw60 8 років тому

    Wish someone would explain measure in eight's of an inch. Lightbulbs are in pars, one par = 1/8" . Roller chain on a bicycle is this way, possibly it is to do away with fractions.

  • @BuffaloBridger
    @BuffaloBridger 8 років тому

    I'd like to see a video on why we in America refer to other countries by different names than they refer to themselves as. Japan instead of Nippon, Germany instead of Deutchland, etc.

  • @calwylie4350
    @calwylie4350 8 років тому

    Clockwise is from left to right the same as the way we measure degrees Asmuth from the 90/0 degree mark not from right to left as you stated at the beginning of the video, if we followed that advice we would be going backwards

  • @hellapana7092
    @hellapana7092 8 років тому

    clocks run clockwise because if they ran counterclockwise we 'd call them "counters", and it'd be really awkward and confusing walking into a store and asking how much are their counters.

  • @schwarzerritter5724
    @schwarzerritter5724 8 років тому +1

    A clock runs clockwise, because it runs clockwise.
    Even if it would run counterclockwise, it would still run clockwise.

  • @waswestkan
    @waswestkan 8 років тому

    The Sundial immediatel entered ny mind when I read the video title.

  • @Jason-o5s
    @Jason-o5s 8 місяців тому

    Cheer~~~in the same direction as the way in which the hands of a clock move around.😊

  •  7 років тому

    I've got a question: why is the moon fases upside-down in the equator and sidewise in high latitudes?

  • @BlackfeatherTanfur
    @BlackfeatherTanfur 6 років тому

    How old are 'deasil' and 'widdershins' being roughly synonyms to clockwise and counterclockwise, respectively? They're more explicit in their shade of meaning (sorry pun intended) in being related to the Sun's motions.

  • @emmitstewart1921
    @emmitstewart1921 6 років тому

    Before the invention of clocks, the terms were sunwise and widdershins.

  • @silicoid
    @silicoid 8 років тому

    There are however the Bavarian clocks that go counter clockwise.

  • @perwagenius3721
    @perwagenius3721 7 років тому +2

    clockwise isńt a verb, and that really pisses me off. 2:15

  • @danielb516
    @danielb516 8 років тому +3

    baby chicks are founds to look from left to right when they study something...so clock wise is natural way to go

    • @OatmealTheCrazy
      @OatmealTheCrazy 8 років тому

      uhh, yeah, sure.

    • @danielb516
      @danielb516 8 років тому

      ok dont believe it ...just rehashing studies done my behavioral scientists....but mabey thats not good enough for ya ....

    • @OatmealTheCrazy
      @OatmealTheCrazy 8 років тому

      Daniel B I'm not doubting whatever direction chicks look when doing whatever. I'm doubting clockmakers cared enough to make that a reason. Unless you're implying that's an ancestral reason. There's a reason we don't use birds for studies to get incite on humans. :v

    • @danielb516
      @danielb516 8 років тому

      Oatmeal im saying its natural way for all animals to veiw things and birds helped us understand why we choose that way in the first place ..we didnt say oh birds do that so well follow....

    • @OatmealTheCrazy
      @OatmealTheCrazy 8 років тому

      Daniel B Please read my entire comment.

  • @catherinehogue3656
    @catherinehogue3656 8 років тому

    In french it's ''cloche'' C H to make the ''sh'' sound

  • @Angela-pj5xy
    @Angela-pj5xy 7 років тому

    If you shouldn't feed a mogwai after midnight when does it become ok to feed your mogwai again?