Geek Trivia: What Determined The Direction Of Clock Hand Movement?

Religious Tradition A Royal Decree Sundials Right Handed Clock Makers geek-trivia-what-determined-the-direction-of-clock-hand-movement photo 1

geek-trivia-what-determined-the-direction-of-clock-hand-movement photo 2
Answer: Sundials

The hands of clocks and watches rotate from the upper right quadrant of the clock face down to the lower right, around to the lower left, and then back up around through the upper left until they arrive in the upper right quadrant– a familiar movement we simply refer to as clockwise.

But why this right-to-left rotation? Clocks could have just as easily been constructed to rotate in the opposite direction, after all. To understand the rotational direction of clock hands, we need to turn to the clock’s predecessor and where the first clock faces and clock hands were constructed. Prior to clocks, people used the sun to tell time and often in the form of a sun dial.

The first clocks with hands were constructed in the Northern Hemisphere and a horizontal sun dial in the Northern Hemisphere has a shadow that rotates from the upper right around to the lower left and back up again; early clock makers simply mimicked this familiar motion. Modern clock hands are simply following the same path as the shadow cast by ancient sun dials.

Bonus Trivia: Vertical sun dials have a shadow that moves counter-clockwise and a few early clocks were constructed to follow the shadow path produced by them. Few examples of these older counter-clockwise clocks exist, but a remarkably well preserved one can be seen in the Münster Cathedral located in Münster, Germany. The Münster astronomical clock not only tells the time with an hour hand that traces the actual path of the sun but also has minor hands that track the positions of Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Saturn, Mercury, and has a moon-phase indicator.

Article Geek Trivia: What Determined The Direction Of Clock Hand Movement? compiled by Original article here

More stories

Desktop Fun: Moody Skies Wallpaper Collection Series 2

There is nothing quite like looking at a sky filled with billowing clouds, colorful sunsets, visible divisions between storms and clear areas, or lightning. Bring the moods of the sky itself to your desktop with the second in our series of Moody Skies Wallpaper collections.

The Best How-To Geek Articles for August 2012

This past month we covered topics such as how to make Mozilla Firefox fast again, 11 ways to make your LastPass account even more secure, how to install extensions from outside the Chrome web store, and more. Join us as we look back at the best articles for August.

Donkey Kong Wall Shelves [DIY Project Inspiration]

Are you looking for inspiration for a geeky DIY project to get into over the holiday weekend? Then take a look at this fantastic looking set of Donkey Kong wall shelves created by artist Igor Chak!

Friday Fun: Z-Type

This week’s game is a bit like Space Invaders except you use typing to defend your position. Defending your position will be easy enough at first, but things will quickly become complicated! Do you have the speed and accuracy required to survive or will the enemy have the last word?