Measurement of time is an important thing. It prepare us for a work in an orderly manner. This topic deals with clock and subsequently with time. There are mainly following important parts of a clock -
Dial, Hour - hand, Minute - hand and Second hand.
The clock has 12 numbered from 1 to 12. Also, the clock is divided into 60 equal minute divisions. Therefore, each hour numbered, is separated by five minutes divisions.
60 Minute = An hour
30 Minute = Half an hour
15 Minute = Quarter of an hour
The clock has a circular dial, which circumference is divided into 12 parts. Labeled as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, .......... and 12. The space between every pair of two numbers is divided in 5 equal parts.
Thus the clock's dial is divided into 60 small divisions. The clock has three hands. One is longest (Second hand), second is mid size (Minute hand) and smallest is (Hour hand).
(1) Second hand - The longest hand of clock is known as second hand. The minute hand moves from one small division to the next small division in 1 second.
The second hand goes once round the dial in 1 minute. Thus the second hand covers 60 small division in 1 minute.
60 Second = 1 Minute
(2) Minute hand - The mid size clock's hand known as minute hand. The minute hand moves from one small division to the next small division in 1 minute.
The minute hand goes once round the dial in 1 hour. Thus, the minute hand covers 60 small divisions in one hour.
60 minute = 1 Hour
(3) Hour hand - The smallest hand of clock is known as hour hand. The hour hand moves from one number to the next number in one hour. The hour hand takes 12 h. to complete one round. Also, it takes 2 complete round of the clock in a day.
A day = 24 Hour
It's movement is also in a clockwise direction.
AM and PM
Time between 12 midnight and 12 noon is denoted by AM. Where AM stands for Ante - Meridian.
Time between 12 noon and 12 midnight is denoted by PM, where PM stands for post - meridian. Thus, 4 PM refers to 4'O clock in the evening.
We generally use 12 h clocks but Air lines, Railway time table, shipping lines, Television network etc. Do not use 12 h clock time. They use 24 h clock time. A 24 h clock dial may be visualised as the one given below.
The first two digits on the left denote hours while the right two digit denoted minutes. The day starts at 12 midnight (12:00 AM) and is written as 00:00 h. Hence, the time in this clock type is expressed as 12 O'clock midnight is written as 2400 h or 0000 h.
4:00 AM is written as 0400 h.
10:00 AM is written as 1000 h.
3:00 PM is written as 1500 h.