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Telling time review

Review telling time on an analog clock, and try some practice problems.

Analog clocks

Time is told in hours and minutes. For example, if the time is 9:39, the hour is 9 and the minutes are 39. Another way to think of this is that the time is 39 minutes after 9 o'clock.
There are two hands on an analog clock. The short hand is the hour hand. The long hand is the minute hand.
A clock with every hour labeled and tick marks every 1 minute. The short, pink hand points between the 9 and the 10. The blue, long hand points to fourth tick mark after the 7.

Reading the hour hand

The hour is the number that the hour hand is either pointing to or has most recently passed.
For example, on all the following clocks, the hour is 3 o'clock.
A clock with every hour labeled and tick marks every 1 minute. The short hand points to the 3. The long hand points to the 12.
A clock with every hour labeled and tick marks every 1 minute. The short hand points between the 3 and the 4. The long hand points to fourth tick mark after the 4.
A clock with every hour labeled and tick marks every 1 minute. The short hand points just before the 4. The long hand points at the first tick mark after the 10.

Reading the minute hand

The minute hand starts at the top of the clock facing the 12. This represents 0 minutes after the hour. Every minute after this, the minute hand moves one tick mark to the right.
For example, on the following clock the minute hand has moved 14 tick marks from the top of the clock. So, the minutes are 14.
A clock with every hour labeled and tick marks every 1 minute. The short hand points between the 1 and the 2. The long hand points to the fourth tick mark after the 2. The clock is shaded blue from the 12 to the fourth tick mark after the 2. The tick mark is labeled 14.
Want to learn more about telling time? Check out this video.

Example

What time is it?
A clock with every hour labeled and tick marks every 1 minute. The short hand points between the 6 and the 7. The long hand points to the second tick mark after the 5.
The hour hand is between 6 and 7, so it is after 6 o'clock but not yet 7 o'clock.
The hour is 6.
A clock with every hour labeled and tick marks every 1 minute. The short hand points between the 6 and the 7. The long hand points to the second tick mark after the 5. The clock is shaded blue from the 12 to the second tick mark after the 5. The tick mark is labeled 27.
The minute hand has moved 27 tick marks from the top of the clock. So, the minutes are 27.
The time is 6:27.

Practice

Problem 1
What time is it?
The time is
  • Your answer should be
  • an integer, like 6
  • a simplified proper fraction, like 3/5
  • a simplified improper fraction, like 7/4
  • a mixed number, like 1 3/4
  • an exact decimal, like 0.75
  • a multiple of pi, like 12 pi or 2/3 pi
:
  • Your answer should be
  • an integer, like 6
  • a simplified proper fraction, like 3/5
  • a simplified improper fraction, like 7/4
  • a mixed number, like 1 3/4
  • an exact decimal, like 0.75
  • a multiple of pi, like 12 pi or 2/3 pi
a.m.

Want to try more problems like this? Check out this exercise.

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