• nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    It was the only way I could tell how much time is left, I didn’t have a phone till highschool. In school counting down the second till school was over was so crucial.

  • AFaithfulNihilist@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I’ve worked in 2 different schools in the IT department and 4 others as a volunteer lecturer (I got a name tag that said Technology Evangelist) I found that putting an analog clock in the screen saved of computers in the classroom was more likely to result in the clock actually being on time.

    Too many clocks in classrooms are very old or even battery powered but neglected.

    I don’t think kids are dumb just they aren’t getting a world that is properly maintained by competent people that care about their work and are adequately resourced to do the whole job.

  • ngwoo@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    If only there was a building children could attend where they do things like teach how clocks work

      • accideath@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        In my elementary school we even had clocks, where the numbers were large dice the teacher could take out and rotate so they showed ½, 30 or 18 instead of 6, for example. It’s not hard to learn, if you’re at a school. But then again, digital clocks are so everpresent that it might not actually matter…

      • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        The problem is unless you really use the skill a lot you’re not really gonna learn it from school. I had to teach myself how to read analog clocks in highschool cause even though I’m pretty sure I learned it in elementary school I grew up with computers and eventually smart phones so I never had to use it.

        Edit: Also for context I was born in 2001

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          We had one in every classroom. So we only had to look at it for reinforcement of the original lesson.

          • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            We had them too but at least for me in elementary school I didn’t really care what time it was. I remember I knew what position on the clock meant school was done but other then that didn’t really need to read it cause the teachers would just bring us as a class to whatever our next class was for that day. By the time I got old enough to start caring smartphones were prevalent enough that I never really needed to learn how to read a clock. It wasn’t until highschool where teachers got more strict about enforcing no phones out in class that I then learned how to read clocks so I could know when class would be done.

    • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Gather round, children, time to learn how to use a dial up modem, and after that we’ll go over Morse code.

      • Zoot@reddthat.com
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        11 months ago

        Did you not learn morse code in school…? I’m rather young and that was taught in one of my classes I’m fairly certain. Even if it was mainly for fun, and only really remembered how to do SoS

  • Halosheep@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    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?

          • psud@aussie.zone
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            11 months ago

            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?

    • windpunch@feddit.org
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      11 months ago

      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.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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.

      • MrShankles@reddthat.com
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        11 months ago

        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

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          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.

          • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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            11 months ago

            So what are the purposes? Nobody uses analog clocks anymore so afaict:

            1. To teach fractions
            2. Something to do with being a pilot???

            What am I missing? 😛

            • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              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.

      • WldFyre@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Lol I don’t think that’s true, and I don’t think those words work the way you used them anyway

        • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          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.

          • WldFyre@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            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.

            • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Making any excuse to not learn how analog clocks work is what’s really a weak assertion. It’s not that fucking hard.

    • Faresh@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      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.

      • Scrath@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        11 months ago

        Honestly that’s just about being used to one versus the other. For me it’s basically the other way around

    • pixelscript@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      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.

      • Halosheep@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        I think that’s an interesting way to look at it. I find it easier to do the mental gymnastics, as you call it.

    • pseudopsyche@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      11 months ago

      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.

    • Got_Bent@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      You can use them as a crude compass next time you find yourself unexpectedly in the wilderness.

    • kshade@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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.

  • DNOS@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    Guys lets be honest why point at small Numbers which you have to read in a specific sequence while doing some math when you can easily and nowadays probably more efficiently (paper-ink) display them… Analog clocks are going to disappear and people will watch at them with the same eyes as we watch a sundial…(Btw I had to search for the translation of the world sundial that’s how common it is … 😉)
    I can ready It but i get teens Who dont

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      Analog clocks are a better representation of how we think of time than a digital clock.

      If someone looks and immediately afterwards someone asks them for the time, they will look at their watch again. The number isn’t really what matters, it’s “how long until X will happen” that matters more.

      You know you’re meeting is at 10:30, you see it’s 9:55. You know it’s about a half hour until the meeting, and the meeting will happen when that big hand gets to the bottom. The numbers themselves won’t do that for you, you have to think 60 minutes in an hour, 60-5 = 5 + 30 = 35 minutes away. When you check the digital clock again you see 10:17, so you have to think 30-17 = 13 minutes until the meeting. But with an analog clock it’s like a reusable progress bar (well progress arc to be more accurate). Quick glance and you see how far the minute hand has to go and you’re good.

      Sure the mental math needed to get a sense of time with a digital clock isn’t all that hard. But it is an additional step over the adhoc progress arcs that analog clocks provide.

      Digital clocks are fine and all, but are just slightly worse than analog clocks. Just how technology is going I guess, always giving us something that’s technically more advanced but worse for humans to interface with.

      • GelatinGeorge@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Er, what? If I look at the clock and see it’s 0955 I know exactly that it’s 35 minutes. Same for every other example you give. If it’s 1252, it’s so easy to add 8 minutes then add whatever it is more. And you can do that for any time. Say 1017. “Oh no!” Never fear, the just add it to the time wangs are here: +13 to 30 and woah! Easy, foolproof and actually intuitive

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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          11 months ago

          1030-955=75. So intuitively, it would be 75 minutes until the meeting. Oh wait… maybe it’s not intuitive?

          210 degree arc is always going to be 35 minutes. Whether it’s the 35 minutes from 9:55 to 10:30 or 9:50 to 10:25 or 3:15 to 3:50 or whatever. Sure you have to get used to the arcs. But once you do, it’s a quick glance at the minute hand and seeing how far away it is from the time of the meeting (or whatever the next thing is). Time for a computer is a number, time for a human is how long until a thing is going to happen.

  • marcos@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    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.

    • Monstrosity@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      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.

    • TwistedTurtle@monero.town
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      11 months ago

      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.

    • Eatspancakes84@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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.

    • Noobnarski@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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.

  • leadore@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    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.

      • leadore@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        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.

    • bleistift2@sopuli.xyz
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      11 months ago

      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.

      • trashcan@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        The point is the instinct to check phone for the time is so strong that they’re not looking around for clocks.

      • leadore@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        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.

    • doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 months ago

      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.