# How Clock Hands Relate

Watch the second hand lap the dial 60 times while the minute hand makes one full turn and the hour hand moves on by one numeral

By gentle\-otter\-8c981f29

Topic: Machines

[Open the interactive Jig](https://ask.jig.com/j/J4ZRYeRFiEAD)

## Transcript

### 1. How Clock Hands Relate

A clock has three hands that all turn around the same centre\. The thin red second hand, the long minute hand and the short hour hand each move at their own speed\. Their speeds are linked in a simple way, and you are about to see how\.

Drag the room to look around the clock\. Scroll or pinch to move closer\.

### 2. The second hand: one lap a minute

The red second hand jumps one small mark every second\. There are 60 marks around the dial, so one full lap takes 60 seconds\. That is exactly one minute\.

Each jump turns the hand 6 degrees, because 60 jumps share the 360 degrees of a full turn\.

### 3. One lap, one mark

Here one minute plays ten times faster\. While the second hand makes one full lap, watch the long minute hand\. It creeps forward by just one small mark, and that mark lights up\.

The minute hand moves so slowly that you rarely see it move, but it never stops\.

### 4. Count sixty laps

Now send the second hand racing around the dial 60 times\. Every lap moves the minute hand on by one mark, and each mark lights up as it is reached\. Keep an eye on the short hour hand too\. It starts at the 3\.

Sixty laps of the second hand take one hour, so this hour is squeezed into 16 seconds\.

### 5. The hour hand moves one numeral

After 60 laps the minute hand is back at the 12, having made one full turn\. In that same hour the short hour hand travelled only from the 3 to the 4\. That is one numeral, or one twelfth of its own lap\.

Sixty second\-hand laps make one minute\-hand lap, and the hour hand moves on by one numeral\.

### 6. It never jumps

Slide through the hour, or drag the long minute hand around the dial yourself\. The hour hand creeps forward a little with every minute\. At half past three it points halfway between the 3 and the 4\.

Here the minute hand works like a time machine: every hand keeps its true place for the time you choose\.

### 7. Twelve hours, one hour\-hand lap

The hour hand needs 12 numerals for a full turn, so the minute hand must go round 12 times\. Inside the clock, small gear wheels share out the motion so each hand keeps its own pace\.

That is 720 laps of the second hand for every single lap of the hour hand\.