Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? | Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains...

Why do clocks go clockwise? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice ponder about the way we tell our time and more.
We think about time geometrically and the history of timekeeping with sundials. What if timekeeping had been invented in the southern hemisphere? Plus, we discuss precision, synchronization, and chronometers on boats.
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Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!
#StarTalk #neildegrassetyson
00:00 - What’s up with clocks?
4:22 - Inventing the Sundial
7:24 - Counterclockwise Clocks
9:39 - Digital Clocks
12:00 - Precise Time
14:32 - Chronometers on Boats

[@StarTalk]

What do you think the world would be like if we didn't have GPS time today? What technologies that we take for granted would be impossible?

[@upupuptheziggurat.liketysplit]

In my experience I account absolutely zero reference from any man made timekeeping device. Your better off asking the moss. Plants do time way better than people anyway...

[@markfoster1520]

@@upupuptheziggurat.liketysplit But it's always time to water them, in their opinion.

[@sandal_thong8631]

Will the word "o'clock" be getting retired soon in favor of AM/PM?

[@lcflngn]

As you said, jet planes for ex. But weren’t trains the first reason folks began to synchronize time? I love learning mind-opening new ideas about how we measure, and indeed experience time. Always a trip ;) This ep was great!

[@upupuptheziggurat.liketysplit]

@@lcflngn Did you know? When the very first locomotive steam engines were tested, due to the effect you mention, being that it starts to mess with perception of time, they thought it may possibly be quite dangerous. So, they erected big wooden screens. It was so the people watching the tests wouldn't be forced to endure the possibility of watching people in some sort of distorted screaming and death caused by the phenomena of speed as they went by.

[@Unc1eMike]

I'm 59 years old, and I love these explainer videos! My kids are always confused when I say "quarter till" or "10 to". Even now, when I read a digital time, I envision an analog clock in my head.

[@JA238979]

I like the analog clock idea, because analog devices seem more tangible and durable than electronic alternatives.

[@Oujana1990]

Lucky you, man, In my case, all I see and hear is a 12 bing. Bangs Horloge inside the head

[@Msvalexvalex]

I just figured out why my niece stared at me in absolute confusion when, after she asked for the time, I said "quarter to four". The poor kid didn't understand me!

[@Aurochhunter]

Interesting. I remember when I was a boy, my grandmother would travel a lot, and often bring back gifts. On several occasions she gave me a watch, the style and band would differ, but the one thing that was consistant is that it was always a digital watch. At first they were little more than a novelty as I hadn't yet learned how to read the time; then I got my first analog watch at the age of 8, and it was then that I started getting serious about learning how to read the time. To this day, any watch I've had since then has been analog.

[@cdjhyoung]

The shame I find is folks of my generation (I'm almost 70) have lost that skill to approximate what time it is from the clock face. I use those 'quarter to' time references to blamk stares all too often with my contemporaries.

[@olabergvall3154]

Fun fact: In my language, we don't actually say "clockwise". It's "with the sun", and counter-clockwise would be "against the sun". This little detail is actually important, since because of this naming convention, I've always known why dials on a clock face turn in the direction they do.

[@alvaroq2024]

Sounds like something from an Indian dialect.

[@olabergvall3154]

@@alvaroq2024 Swedish in fact 😌

[@alvaroq2024]

@@olabergvall3154 ok

[@doricetimko5403]

You all make so much sense ❤

[@airjuri]

Hey nice. I just got revelation that in finnish it is kind a same. Straight translation to english would propably be along day and against day.

[@JazTrance]

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of knowledge Neil has in his head!

[@matthewclark1006]

I do want to point something out. If you think he comes up with all those ideas all by his lonesome you’re very wrong.

[@Joncoxjohnxdxnl]

@matthewclark1006 I think it's not about the ideas it's about the "knowledge" @JazTrance was referring to...🤔

[@Joncoxjohnxdxnl]

Even more, I'm amazed at how much knowledge Chuck gained from Neil and how much we all learned from Neil just by watching his videos. Both gentlemen make science and learning so much fun, it's just great and I'm grateful to them for that...

[@Gertyutz]

@@Joncoxjohnxdxnl Is Chuck also a scientist?

[@atlantic_love]

@@matthewclark1006 Not only that, but Neil has been shown to being wrong on many things. He's an entertainer.

[@j.a.velarde5901]

"Like Spiderman in the middle of a field" WONDERFUL. I laughed at this. :)

[@claudiomueckay7251]

Having been born in Ecuador, I grew up knowing that when I didn't cast a shadow it was twelve o'clock on any day of the year, always. And also how easy it was to recognize any cardinal point by seeing where the sun was during the morning or afternoon. My beautiful Ecuador 💛💛💙❤️

[@sk8rdman]

Surely that would only be true around the equinox. Around the solstices you would have a northern or southern pointing shadow.

[@inothome]

@@sk8rdman Exactly.

[@Qexilber]

My dad can do that too. That is the cardinal directions thing, … not the casting no shadow thing. 😉 We are in middle Europe. I have sadly never learned that but am picking it up slowly over time now.

[@chenphilosophy]

I love it when I can laugh and learn something cool at the same time. I'm very glad that we have people like Neil deGrasse Tyson as a science communicator.

[@joat_dad4090]

Explain to your boss that you were late coming back from lunch because your sun-dial watch showed that it was approximately after noon.

[@karenungeraffinityfranchis5430]

Gnomen knows what time it is ..... I want a counter-clockwise clock! Trippy! 😂

[@josepalacid]

Don't let us be confused about Chuck. As a comedian in this show, he must follow a role of misunderstanding or lack of knowledge, but he has a privileged mind. You can tell it by his gags, but for very deep questions or highlights about the subject he throws often.

[@aviandragon1390]

I don't know if this is the normal format for this show, but these two definitely make a good team. Informative with a healthy mix of lighthearted humor. 👍

[@juanjoperez7537]

hella good team!

[@pandaprophetable]

Chuck (thankfully) seems to be the most regular host. He’s the best!!

[@slamhound58]

and Neil with a healthy mix of some kind of cocktail... ;)

[@Pyrgiotaki22]

If anyone wonders about the term ‘gnomon’ in the sundial… it actually was one of the first astronomical and geometrical instruments devised.. the g is silent only in the English form of the word. it literally means ‘the one who knows’, so it makes things ‘known’ to us. :) thanks for all you do! Keep up the good work and knowledge! You are my treasure channel

[@robertkelley3437]

Just think a sundial on the Equator does not exist. It would be a sunline.

[@josephnicora7457]

I was taught that in grade school. It was fun to revisit. As soon as Neil asked why clocks move clockwise, I immediately thought of sundials thanks to my 3rd grade teacher.

[@fiusionmaster3241]

Cool

[@andmicbro1]

Same. I immediately went to sundials, then was thinking about Southern hemisphere sundials running counterclockwise as well. Civilization is northern hemisphere biased.

[@StarTalk]

That's a great teacher!

[@mlee6050]

I always thought they was like we make it go that way as how we count up but then it got name clockwise as it is a clock and it is wise

[@SergioAbarca9]

@@andmicbro1 To be expected when most of the population is in the northern hemisphere.

[@MazMozdy]

The sunset direction changing every season was one of the things that absloutely blew my mind when I experienced it moving from Yemen to Canada. Time keeping back home was so easy, I would easily know what time (hour) it is just by looking at the sun/shadow during the day. But then, moving to Canada with swinging day/night hours throughout the year was so confusing to me and so weird to experience.. I would lose track of time and will have to keep setting alarms or look at my phone to know what time it is.. definitely an interesting life experience, lol.

[@robertcampomizzi7988]

I live in Southern Ontario and went to western/northern Ontario and that amount of change in latitude was noticeable... it was 10:30 and still light out in July....

[@CZPanthyr]

I experienced the same confusion when I moved to Michigan from Panama.

[@fiusionmaster3241]

Yes

[@FLPhotoCatcher]

Tyson was mistaken when he said that in the northern hemisphere the sun is never to the north. But in the summer months the sun rises and sets well north of directly east and west. Even if he meant "directly north", above the arctic circle, in the summer months the sun moves 360 degrees, and crosses due north.

[@marksnow7569]

@@FLPhotoCatcher You're right about the Arctic Circle- but did you know that the difference between "Orient" and "East" is that "Orient" referred specifically to the direction of sunrise, so in ancient literature you will find references to "winter orient" and "summer orient"?

[@muzvid]

I was in college when digital watches started to dominate, and I remember my roommate commenting that we were witnessing the beginning of the end of "clockwise." About 15 years later, a young boy asked me what time it was. I looked at my digital watch, mentally converted the time to analog, and told him it was a quarter to 5. He looked confused, and asked me, "That's 4 what?" I told him it was 4:45, but he didn't trust me, and I overheard him repeat his question to the next person he encountered!

[@Gertyutz]

I'm 77, and I still won't buy a digital watch. There are an abundance of analog watches still out there.

[@deolihp]

Hahha😊

[@YouTuber-mc2el]

For me, this was the best Start Talk yet. Interesting, informative and deep laughter. Keep 'em coming.

[@Observ45er]

I have trouble taking everything he says, now because of his completely WRONG video earlier this year about how airplane wings create lift.

[@Cornet_Tooter]

I remember asking my dad as a child if the world was in colour before colour TV. I'm sure I'm not the only one

[@fritzelly7309]

As a very young child I couldn't understand how the picture on the TV could move left and right without the tv moving and my dad laughing when I asked him

[@abstract5249]

I remember asking my mom if the world would become black and white one day because for some reason I thought black and white movies showed the future, not the past.

[@Cornet_Tooter]

@Abstract That makes perfect sense. We know what things looked like in the past- we don't have that information for the future- so black and white could be a safe bet for future based films. Perhaps oranges will ripen green 2000 years from know? Ooooh

[@Cornet_Tooter]

@@fritzelly7309 That's an inquisitive brain trying to get an understanding of the world at an early age. Nice one!

[@shannonharris]

I've said the same to my mom and old man neighbor. What was the world like before color existed? 😂

[@jeffffff12]

I remember when I was a kid in the early sixties. You could call a number for the CORRECT time! A useful service.

[@jerelull9629]

Yup! calling the time number was pretty cool, nut it cost something, so I was always too cheap to have the exact time -- unless I was working on my short-wave radio, where WWV had a running time call-out. And CHU in Quebec, somewhere. Now, I need only look at my DVR for the correct time, even with the DST spring forward & fall back, which I love in the Fall, hate in the Spring.

[@njones420]

This service is still running here in the UK ... you just dial "123". "in 2011, the BBC reported: "The service still receives 30 million calls each year." has been going since the 1930s :)

[@DyreStraits]

I remember thinking it was very cool to call that number with an area code in another time zone.

[@realbadger]

That was still a thing in the 70s.

[@jaystewart8757]

At the tone, the time will be...beep

[@johnhenry5197]

Back in junior high school, (many many moons ago), we had a history teacher we referred to as "the great stuffer". He made learning fun! Thank You for making learning fun! You both never disappoint.

[@andrewwebster6025]

In the early days of clocks in the UK , their times were set roughly by the time of the midday sun. This would mean that it would be 12 noon in London and in Bristol to the west perhaps 15 minutes behind. It became standardised when the railways arrived and they needed a standard time to set their timetables

[@randolphphillips3104]

Worst part of losing analog clock face is that I have actually had to explain to a twenty-something that "a quarter past 1" was 1:15, not 1:25.

[@noahway13]

Why don't we have metric time?

[@Loan--Wolf]

try to explain time in tents to some one thats hard in the auto repair biz your pay time is in 10s or was in my day

[@metalzonemt-2]

@Conon the Binarian⚧ How's that even possible? Doesn't he know that after 1:59 it'll be 2:00?

[@Captain_Al]

i like the way he thinks tho...😅

[@randolphphillips3104]

For those asking, no, he didn't think there was 100 minutes. He was convinced "one quarter" was always 25, because a quarter is worth 25 cents. He showed up 10 minutes late, and insisted he was on time. To be fair, this guy spent his entire first day doing paperwork. I thought it was for HR, turned out to be applications for other jobs.

[@47f0]

Actually, you can be in the Northern hemisphere, and have the sun appear north of you. This can happen anywhere between the tropic of Cancer at 23.5 degrees N, and the equator. You have to get north of the tropic of Cancer to guarantee that the sun will always be south of you. Also, definitionally, whichever way we engineered clocks to rotate is the direction we would call clockwise so...

[@user-rw2jo1fz2p]

yeah, also don't bother to look for the pole star in order to navigate if you're on the southern hemisphere :P.

[@47f0]

@@user-rw2jo1fz2p - Weird how that pesky North star just doesn't seem to be visible on a flat Earth in the southern latitudes.

[@bjornmu]

If you're north of the Arctic Circle in mid summer, the sun will be due north of you in the middle of the night.

[@47f0]

@@bjornmu - My first impression was, "Who let this guy loose from a flat Earth channel..." Then I looked at your name - Björn - but with a slashed"o"... hmmm. Maybe this guy knows something about the Arctic circle... Then the penny drops. If the Sun is not setting (midnight sun) at some point, it's going to be shining across the North Pole, over the top of the planet directly at you. Brilliant.

[@loneranger718]

@@47f0 you're really intense about flat earthers , aren't you. Is that how you accumulate self worth

[@mrbrownbagable]

Thank you I never looked at this like this. Very easy to remember. These are important factors to remember when hiking or traveling on Earth. Thanks again Neil’s, enthusiasm the way he conveys information is easily burned into the memory better that any teacher I’ve ever had. The passion is tool for Neil to express his knowledge. Thank you Neil and thank you to the host of this show. Keep up the good work.

[@Mzinab]

When I first read this title, I thought of sun dials as the precursor to the modern clock, and it blew me away when Neil started talking about a counterclockwise clock. It was then that I remembered that back in the 90's, I had a "Goofy" watch which was exactly that, a counterclockwise clock. I LOVED that watch and wore it for years! So much so, that I became very good at telling time by it. And of course, I would always show it off to my friends at work. But what eventually happened was that when I looked at a regular clock, I ALWAYS had to take a moment to figure out what time it was! When my goofy watch finally but the dust, I had to learn reading a regular clock for a second time in my life!

[@watchingdanny]

I did not expect this video to be as interesting as it ended up being. Love your channel. Making even the most seemingly mundane topics fascinating.

[@stevencooke6451]

Neil can make anything interesting. Perhaps he should help with our upcoming renovation.

[@LoneTiger]

@@stevencooke6451 Neil's backwards clock should be making him younger! 😹

[@TheAndjelika]

Dear Neil and Chuck, greetings from the Netherlands. Thank you ever so much for this episode. I tune in every week, but I found this one particularly special. It felt like a splendid lecture, suitable for all ages. The discussion about the Sun and Earth, the North and the South, was truly captivating. And let's not forget Chuck's jokes - they were absolutely brilliant. The image of a pointless Spiderman in the meadow left me in stitches! Perhaps the lack of practical application of geometry in our daily lives, and the scarcity of geometric thinking, is the very reason we encounter a growing number of flat-minded individuals across the globe these days.

[@StarTalk]

Greetings! Thank you for the wonderful feedback.

[@SergioAbarca9]

Spreek je Nederlands? Ik heb en vraagje als je doet

[@TheAndjelika]

@@SergioAbarca9 Ja graag. Doe maar.

[@clarkporter1340]

Ur last sentence is pure gold

[@MarcKloos]

​@@SergioAbarca9Wat is de vraag?

[@nicholasdunn999]

One of my favorite books: Name of the Wind, the author uses different phrases for "clockwise" and "counterclockwise," which he calls "against the sun", or "the unlucky way." Beautiful and quirky.

[@konvictedkonversations6212]

Neil, thank you for doing what you do. I love that you have the knowledge to explain things to rest of us in a way we understand. Learning with you is a pleasure. Thank you! 🙏🏻

[@DavidTorres-pd2ls]

Always an informative pleasure to listen to you two talk about science..

[@realbadger]

In two different _Columbo_ episodes (in the 1970s), a killer changed the time on their victim's watch, both in each case the victim was a Personal Assistant who'd always set their respective watches five or so minutes early, so the changed time on the watches was the killers' undoing...

[@noahway13]

Ok....

[@SeanRankin2]

I remember that occurring on the 'Candidate for a Crime' episode and one featuring William Shatner. Are those the Columbo episodes you're referring to?

[@NandR]

I believe in the William Shatner episode it wasn’t the victim but his assistant that he drugged to pass out. And he changed the time to make an alibi with the guy as a witness. But he didn’t change it back correctly.

[@noahway13]

I love Columbo. People don't think that deep anymore. (audiences)

[@AJyep]

“Unnecessary precision in the moment” is perhaps my favorite comment of the whole show; great show guys!

[@Gelo202]

Excelente este video. Aprendí mucho de la historia del reloj. Gracias.

[@randolphphillips3104]

My backwards clock was red. Drove people nuts when they cane in my office and it took a while for them to figure out what was off. I hung it behind me, so someone entering saw it, but when I looked in the little mirror I stuck on my computer monitor, it looked correct to me.

[@jerelull9629]

That's one way to keep them off-balance.😂

[@PhenomenonVFX]

Absolutely diabolical 😊

[@BushidoBrownSama]

This person is a menace

[@Ch-ui6mw]

I have the same clock on my living room wall. Just to **** with visitors. In a matter of days, I could read that clock instantly, as any other clock.

[@Anne5440_]

My husband has a backwards clock. I moved to the kitchen when I realized that with my dyslexia it is easier for me to read.

[@Simphony12]

That's the first thing I noticed when I moved to the US, the sun was never in the middle of the sky. It was south, and the fact that the sun was always away from the center, my perception was that it was always either later than it actually was or earlier than it actually was. I was born in Colombia, and the perception of the sun changes a little bit due to the position of the country on Earth...

[@virtualDon]

As an Air Traffic Controller (ret.), we had several requirements to advise pilots of the current time. It seemed silly in the days of GPS navigation but it's still required. "Expect further clearance, 1945z. Time now 1920z"

[@abhijeetsinghbal]

Konark Sun Temple in Odisha, INDIA is another true example where in 13th-century CE (year 1250) they harnessed these concepts and many others around sun. The clock, the birth, adulthood, marriage, pregnancy, family, spirituality, crops, gods, art, stonework and what not. One of the fine example of civilization in those times. Also, there are many Sun temples of those times in India and many Sun dials around many cities of INDIA. A good place to visit and learn.

[@billhorton2564]

I lived in South Africa and after I moved there, getting accustomed to the sun being in the North took a month or more. I learned the sundial movement of clocks in 4th grade. Thanks to my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Della Jo Rowan I became a science nerd!

[@marcosdiez7263]

An interesting fact left aside, is the seconds hand addition to the clocks, which happened along the Industrial Revolution. Without it there was no shared sense of the pace of time passing, how fast it does. But industral processes involved human resources to work in sync with machinery, and the seconds hand allowed humans to internalize a sense of the time pace and a sort of imposition to hurry up in our activities to keep up with it.

[@ksc743]

Interesting but a bad invention. Time goes way too fast anyway!

[@DeanArmband]

At some point I heard the second hands came with the either trains or radio.

[@seekingthelovethatgodmeans7648]

Studying the minute hand patiently, one can still see the creep.

[@geoffreycodnett6570]

Clocks became important with railways. Prior to them local time was useful i. e. Sun time from a sundial. Times had to be synchronised for timetables to work. This resulted in time zones.

[@CrowSpirit1977]

Always fun to listen to what Neil's got for us. Thanks friend 😊

[@tevvya]

Neil. You are in good company. Grace Hopper, of computer programming fame, also kept a counter-clockwise clock in her Navy office! As I recall she said she kept it so people would think about how things could work differently.

[@maryvictorious5893]

One of the most amazing things to me about your discussion is that Neil said if southern hemisphere people had "invented" time. I sometimes think that time isn't real, that it's a construct we created or invented in order to orient ourselves in time and space, to manage being in these body-mind contraptions.

[@youcube1]

Did he said time or clock🤔

[@Starjuicer]

They invented clocks and a more exact time keeping. Not time.

[@loizosnikolaou2864]

I had commented in a previous episode about this clock. I was asking why the poster and the flag look right, whereas the clock is reversed. Now I know! As far as the word "gnomon" goes, it comes from the Greek word "γνώμονας" which in geometry is commonly the triangular clear plastic instrument that often comes with an embedded ruler and proctactor.

[@user-pb9hr5ue5g]

There is an extraordinarily interesting book on this topic called Longitude which anyone even vaguely interested in the topic ought to check out from the library and read. It was truly Earth changing in a way that few things are. It is also worth reading Guns, Germs and Steel to understand why it was the northern hemisphere that made this decision as well as his follow up book in which he reconsiders some of his conclusions.

[@petersouthwood7227]

Where I worked in the 80s we had an engineer called Guy. He was approaching retirement then, but he had a watch that lost about 2 minutes an hour. He never changed it but if you asked him the time he would always get it right. A true British eccentric.

[@FredericaNanni]

Many years ago, when I was in the Navy, I had a clock in my workshop that ran counterclockwise. To further confuse visitors to the shop, I had painted out the numbers and replaced them with dots. I could always tell the time, but loved to see the look on people's faces when I did so. (I also read backwards)

[@r6u356une56ney]

Ever make a binary clock?

[@gilleslesauvage3217]

This is cool

[@MadMaxxMoto]

When I was a young lad, my father had a clock in the basement that was on the wall opposite the bar. This clock ran counter-clockwise with the (Roman) numerals not just in reverse (CCW), but mirrored as well, so when looking at the mirror behind the bar you could actually see the clock in its expected role! I've been searching for a replica for MY familyroom bar, and would probably have better luck reprogramming a digital clock to read mirrored than finding an analog one. Kinda like finding bifocals with the reader (near) at the top of the lens instead of the bottom (which to me makes more sense!)

[@lostwizard]

I remember the setting mode on my old wrist watches that just reset the seconds to zero on a button press. Used to wonder what that was for until I understood what "synchronize our watches" meant. Then I used to wonder why nobody ever said *what time* they were synchronizing to or actually give a "mark" for the synchronization. They somehow, via movie magic, managed to synchronize watches to the correct time by just using the "synchronize our watches" incantation.

[@agytjax]

At 3:08, I believe there is a correction. In the Southern Hemisphere, the moss grows on the northern side (not on the southern side as NDG mentions)

[@darylking265]

I love how these two gentlemen have fun discussing these topics. 'At night, Gnoman knows what time it is...' too funny. The funny part about the precision of time is that there's an old joke that says that a person with one watch knows what time it is, the person with two watches is never sure what time it is. Because the watches would never precisely match.

[@MeelaudBoozary]

Lmao, Chuck and Niel are a perfect duo.

[@dankcoyote]

The most interesting part of this is when Neil talks about thinking in time. Reminds me of the film, "Arrival". After I started my own business I realized I stopped thinking in hours. I started thinking of work that needs to get done. What time it was no longer matters. How long something might take still mattered. Animals perceive time differently too. Hummingbirds, cats, insects, humans... all perceive the passage of time differently. It makes me wonder if research is being done on how understanding time can change productivity, happiness, etc. I remember in school we learned about the months of the year from 12 posters that were up on the four walls of the classroom. The teacher put the three spring months on the east wall, the three summer months on the south, the three fall on the east, the three winter on the north. That visual representation of the months is how I learned about the passage of time through the year. So when I think about the summer in my head, we're going into June which means the visual calendar is somewhere facing SouthEast and near the end of June it will be facing directly South. It took me about 30 years to suddenly realize, I don't think other people think about the year the same way I do. I think of it as this oval that follows the cardinal directions and other people think of it as a linear flip book from one month to the next. Strange.

[@MarinCipollina]

Actually, I visualize the year myself as kind of an elongated oval, but one that runs counter-clockwise. For me December/January is at the 3 PM position, February/March is at 12:00, June/July at 9:00 and September/October at 6:00. Wild, huh?

[@kenhuelin4003]

Just saw this Video and thoroughly enjoyed it. I grew up with analog time pieces that you had to wind up every day and never new the answer.

[@stephengillenwaters1950]

Once again, great content guys!!!.. I remember watching my dad wind his clock everyday.

[@rafaiaa13]

I love Neil, but the channel would not be the same without Chuck. Perfect duo! Great job guys.

[@renanraven8705]

Awesome as always! Thanks for sharing so much cool science with us guys love the show.

[@HimuraBattosai101]

Chuck is by far the greatest co-host ive ever seen

[@GeorgeVCohea-dw7ou]

5:29 absolutely proves this! The guy is just smooth and gives Neil a sense of who his audience currently is. He is curious but not necessarily versed in the topics enough for Neil to gloss over bits that he might inadvertently leave out when discussing it with the big brains. It's a great duo.

[@ashishsabharwal9157]

@StarTalk Dr. Tyson's laugh is contagious, looks like it is coming form the core. Love it! 😄

[@stephboogie00]

You both were on point with this one!!! Funny as well as educational 👍🏽👍🏽

[@chalk6ix_nz950]

Damn. I always learn something new when I watch Neil's clips and this is no different.

[@robertphillips6296]

Barber Shops had clocks that ran Counter Clockwise with reverse numbers on the face. This is so that when they looked in the mirror they could know what time it was as they cut their customers hair.

[@Joncoxjohnxdxnl]

Thank you Neil and Chuck for making sciens so much fun for everyone!....

[@irrefudiate]

That was a better explanation than I thought it would be. Mechanical time pieces emulate the sundial. As for digital readouts, I prefer analogue along with digital because it allows me to visually see how much time I need to start getting ready in order to leave and be where I need to be on time. It is analogus to me converting kilometers to miles in order to know, experentially, what the distance, or speed, actually is.

[@brianmooney5552]

We had one clock in our kitchen that always was 30 min ahead of actual time. This was so my dad would leave for work on time. Even though he was the one who set that one clock ahead! He said it was the only clock he could see when drinking his coffee. He did have a watch with the correct time though. It was years after he passed that my mom finally changed it to the time.

[@cassandrapierce7203]

Here's an interesting fact: I am in love with this KZbin ?show? I have never had nor do I openly show an interest in these topics but damnit Neil, you make this so much fun to learn about! I'm feelin' interested thanks to feelin' this.

[@kenmohler4081]

I’m an old guy. Which is probably why I prefer analog time pieces. Looking at the position of the hands gives me a visceral feeling of the time of day that digital clocks don’t.

[@RichardJBarbalace]

If you want to talk about weird clocks, I made one with a single hand where the numbers rotate instead of the hands. It gives a different geometric perspective on time.

[@gilleslesauvage3217]

I love it

[@scoopsfjr]

make a video! I wanna see that clock in action!!

[@mollybell5779]

Wow, Neil, how did you even become determined to learn *why* clocks run clockwise? I always considered it to have merely been a random decision that we all accepted. So... thanks for the education! I just love StarTalk. Of course, now I want an analog clock that runs counter-clockwise, just for the novelty of it. 😁❤️

[@charlietuba]

There is a book called "Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise and Other Imponderables" by David Feldman. When I was working in a bookstore back in the 1980s, a man asked me if we had that book. I told him that we didn't have it in yet, I then asked, "Don't I know you? You're the author!" I had recently seen him on a morning show.

[@janvandoren8910]

In the 1990’s in the Netherlands you could by a clock that ran anti-clock wise. We called them Belgium clocks. That was related to the Belgium jokes that the Dutch made. A bit like the (north?) Irish jokes the English used to make.

[@coastalsailor]

you two are such a good combo I love watching these so much

[@TheBoxField]

Thank you for covering this topic! It was keeping me awake every night! I can now finally sleep in peace.

[@khantin6526]

Lmao

[@wolfshadow_Obama_Osama]

Same fr (french revolution)

[@StarTalk]

Melatonin moment.

[@mauricioweber8879]

Here in Mexico you would dial 003 and waited out a few seconds (with adds of course ) ‘til a recording said “HASTE hour is... 1:00... arguably a nationwide time kept by a central “nuclear” clock... I can still hear that voice...!

[@anandanganesan8240]

Until my retirement there was a analog wall clock in our house which I used to set 10 minutes faster. The time is set whenever we change the battery, usually once in a year. Though we know it is faster, it generally helped us to be on time. My father also used to praise me as a good practice 😊

[@dallinsprogis4363]

7:45 that is pretty interesting. I know of sun dials and yet I have no experience with them or did any kind of testing to see how it would work in the Northern or Southern hemispheres. This was something I had yet to discover. Thank you Neil for sharing important information about my environment and the science around me. I think that this is one piece of the stepping stone to discovering that the object we stand on is round. And of course combining calculations of shadow distances of standing poles of the same height on the same day at the equator and in the northern and southern hemispheres to calculate the curvature (Learned from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series). And then they needed someone to prove it by sailing across the large body of water. That is fascinating. Neil, you have blown my mind. Thank you again! 😅

[@churblefurbles]

Its not, why are screws also clockwise, clearly there is something else going on, like the fact that most people are right handed.

[@hanamantmunnolli6381]

Suprb explanation. Making science interesting and taking it to the masses in the language they can understand easily. Great work and we love your work, from India.

[@giannismentz3570]

He's quite the story teller. He started off with arcs, north pole, moss, I was like waiting to see what the explanation would be, and yeah, sundials, obviously.

[@cletusberkeley9441]

Glad you found the "time" to explain that!😂❤

[@wiz3010]

12:05 I currently have my clock set to 8 mins ahead of Standard time, yes in the back of my mind I always remember that. But I keep it ahead to leave because the bus sometimes goes early. It's a sweet spot running on your own standard time zone😂

[@user-rb8zl2me1j]

chuck is on fire, love it

[@whatthefunction9140]

Haven't watched yet. Is the motion inherited from the sun dial?

[@verafleck]

And from the fact that this was built on the northern hemisphere first.

[@thimblebirb]

no, you should watch the video

[@jerelull9629]

Seems the motion *is* inherited by sundials

[@g.victorpaulson8836]

Perhaps the most profound statement ever made on timekeeping was from Yogi Berra, who, when asked, "Hey Yogi, what time is it?", answered, "Ya mean right now?"

[@kingmonde]

As someone from the southern hemisphere, I want Neil's clock.

[@theadventuresofbrockinthai4325]

I worked for a government lab in Salt Lake City, Utah so everything was run on a 24 hundred time so when I retired I continued using 24:00 as my time. Then I moved overseas and discovered that most of the world uses 24:00 time system. I now live in Thailand and everything uses the 24 hour system so I am right at home.

[@jimrafferty8009]

Thanks guys awesome conversation that I leant from today.

[@jeffreyweaver9729]

I love Star Talk. I could listen to Neil and Chuck discussing these things all day long and never get tired of hearing their explanations. They make science fun.

[@Observ45er]

I have trouble taking everything he says, now because of his completely WRONG video earlier this year about how airplane wings create lift. And this but about the equator is also wrong. The sun is overhead at times from -23 to +23 degrees latitude. . At the Equator in June, the sun is NORTH of you at noon! Summer solstice. It is NORTH of you all the way up to 23 north latitude! . What he says is true at either Equinox ONLY. . At 2:38 He is FLAT WRONG. In June, at 15 degrees north latitude, the sun is NORTH of you at noon- FACT. . At the June solstice, walking north at local noon, you will be looking north at the sun until you get to 23 degrees north latitude. . . This is SO SAD and embarrassing. Neil has lost it!

[@jeffreyweaver9729]

I'll have to check it out.

[@Observ45er]

@@jeffreyweaver9729 So sad and embarrassing.

[@fixitladie]

I keep my clocks at home 10 mins fast. It works and it's really a thing.

[@JuanDurandt]

A bit of additional trivia on the topic of the workings of a sundial. You will only ever see rainbows towards the West in the mornings or towards the East in the afternoons and never towards the North or the South. From where you stand you will always be smack in the middle between the sun and the rainbow. As you view a rainbow, the sun will always be behind you. So, technically you can use a rainbow as a compass of sorts 🙂

[@l.b.9567]

Wow!

[@mcds54]

I'm 70 and grew up with analog clocks. I luv digital now, and time needs to be more precise these days. But I still think in analog and sometimes "translate" from digital to analog in my mind.

[@me4654]

I'm going to have to listen to this around 40x being complex ADHD with severe learning disabilities it's extremely hard for me too grasp, but I thank you for the visuals as it really helps to see what it is Neil is explaining how I envy you guy's that are this intelligent as I love learning about everything! Holding back this type of knowledge because it doesn't fit the Adam& Eve story only Hurt's people, I'm subscribing to the channel and in this situation advertisement led me too something positive🤗

[@TheOpinionatedYouTuber]

Now, @NeildeGrasseTyson needs to do an explainer on how we keep time in the modern computer era with NTP, or the Network Time Protocol. I can’t wait to hear Chuck’s take on the Stratums!

[@EVPaddy]

Yeah I’d say phones use rather ntp than gps time

[@anonymoust8818]

And how we have to keep introducing leap seconds every few years. I'd stay up all night making sure all the cron jobs ran properly ;-)

[@usmile1]

tom scott has a good one iirc kzbin.info/www/bejne/r6LGmn6JlLNjgZo. - actually rewatching it does not cover nntp. back over to you neil!

[@danaskubic2145]

@@anonymoust8818 p

[@siriusczech]

Two small corrections: 1 - sun DOES go north of equator, up to the Tropic of Cancer, so you technically have a lot of oportunities to watch sun slightlyx north of you while being north from the Equator itself. Though this is valid only in the summer and the closer to tropic you are, the rarest such days are. 2 - being time invented on southern hemisphere, the clocks would still go clockwise and not counterclockwise; just the meaning of clockwise and counter-clockwise would be opposite of how we perceive them currently ;)

[@mark_a_schaefer]

I was just about to ask this. On the first day of summer in the northern hemisphere, the sun would be directly perpendicular to the Tropic of Cancer at noon. I kept drawing it out and thought maybe I'd gotten it wrong.

[@tropicsalt.]

I was looking for a comment on this. Without the tilt, we wouldn't have Summer and Winter solstices.

[@MarijnvdZaag]

1 yes, he should have added 'on average throughout the year' and 2 yes I thought the same thing 😅

[@YewtBoot]

Living at 60°N, I have witnessed that the sun's rays do indeed shine on the north sides of trees in the summer.

[@tropicsalt.]

@@YewtBoot with the use of mirrors?

[@karlschulte9231]

Hey don't feel bad, i recall getting our first dial phone.. about 1953. Att gave us a short swizzle stick to dial it. Many older folks were afraid that they would cut fingers. As morse code learner later i was agile enough with my fingers to dial with the hang up button switch. I later read " notes on the network" as a radio systems engineer. There are still fossil like features of the telco that go way back. As Boy Scout, later as Army Signal Corps officer i learned to tell time by circum polar stars. Am hobby level astronomy buff and enjoy your programs greatly. And the humor. Karl

[@chipmcgruder4438]

I am glad you mentioned chronometers at sea. How about an explainer on why that used to be necessary?

[@YoungGandalf2325]

Could you do a video explaining how a person could tell the time of day if they didn't have a watch or phone?

[@jerelull9629]

There's the ancient method using an analog watch that gave us approximate North when we didn't have a compass, and many/most of us can gat a general time of the day by looking at where the Sun is. When I lived in Florida, in one season, I forget which, it always rained cats & dogs at 12:30 PM. You could set your watch to its timing.

[@Sammasambuddha]

Or how to find north at high noon.

[@FeLiNe418]

Just ask someone with a watch or a phone

[@WyndhamLyonsRealty]

Look at a clock?

[@brettm2460]

In the Navy on ships, we have a group of people walk around the ship to all of the ‘official’ analog clocks on the bulkheads (walls) and adjust the minute hands as necessary to ensure that all clocks read the same time. Still happens in 2023. It never occurred to me to think about what the young sailors thought about that… Huh. Thanks for making me think more deeply about things!

[@patricemeijboom9004]

I used to set my watch early. You still forget as you look at so many other time keepers during the day that you tend to forget sometimes especially when looking in shock what time it is which boost your rush mode and then only realize a bit later that you are still on time

[@tony.999]

The British Army (and i imagine others) synchronise watches at the end of a briefing before an attack. Not everyone has GPS controlled watches. Without the synchronisation the attack would start before everyone was in place.

[@smileyeagle1021]

I remember watching a thing about weapons of world war 1, and one of the historians made a point of how a watch was one of the most important weapons an army could have, because it allowed for them to coordinate attacks.

[@kariannecrysler640]

I still set digital clocks ahead😂 over time you forget about it and Live an hour’s drive away from anything so the bit extra makes me happy when I see the bank clock, because I set the cars clock ahead too. Lol

[@Brandon.Nichols]

Fun facts: 1) if you visit Oaxaca Mexico latitude 17° north from May through early August, your shadow at high noon points SOUTH! Things get a little complicated between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. 2) In Utqiaġvik, formerly known as Barrow, Alaska the sun doesn't set from May 10 to August 2, providing 84 days of sunlight on northern faces. The midnight sun is a fun one to try and visualize!

[@mathgeek7966]

Great info and conversation. I used to set clocks in my house 10 minutes early. Amazingly it did help me be on time.

[@Observ45er]

I have trouble taking seriously everything Neil says, now because of your completely WRONG (as in 100%) video earlier this year about how airplane wings create lift. The noon sun is overhead at times from -23 to +23 degrees latitude. . At the Equator in June, the sun is NORTH of you at noon! Summer solstice. It is NORTH of you all the way up to 23 north latitude! . What you say is true at either Equinox ONLY. . At 2:38 You are WRONG. In June, at 15 degrees north latitude, the sun is NORTH of you at noon- FACT. . At the June solstice, walking north at local noon, you will be looking north at the sun until you get to 23 degrees north latitude. . . This is SO SAD and embarrassing. Neil has lost it!

[@buzbuz33-99]

Very interesting as always! If you lived right on the equator (or within plus or minus 23.4 degrees of the equator), wouldn't the arc the sun travels switch from south to north (or vice versa) depending on the season? I realize that not a lot of people live in that zone, but wouldn't those ancient Mayans must have been horribly confused?

[@DyreStraits]

Of course you are correct. What Neil didn't mention is that the sun will rise directly in the east and set directly in the west on only 2 days a year (if you're standing on the equator.

[@wermagst]

​@Roy Hobbs Neil was right, it always rises due east and sets due west if you're on the equator, the arc just tilts north and south. On 2 days a year it passes directly above you and the shadow does not rotate at all: the days of the equinox. Also the length of day and night ist always 12 hours each on the equator and does not change with seasons.

[@pedroedsos]

@@wermagst Neil was wrong: check a solar chart for Pontianak and you will find it is only due east and west at the equinoxes, as it is in every location on Earth. Also, the day lasts a few minutes more than night and there are some 45 seconds of difference between equinoxes and solestices.

[@michaelccopelandsr7120]

Time is fascinating. I worked the subway stations for nearly 10 years. From one end of the city to the other. Every so often I would notice the city would be saying that, "Today just flew by" or "The day was just dragging along." How can an entire city, with no interaction with each other until they used the subway, complain about the same time paradox unless it was effected by it? Maybe a time distorted bubble the earth passes through in its revolution around the sun. Maybe random waves of time distortion hitting the earth? Maybe they're randomly given off by the sun. Maybe they're from outside our Terran system and reach us in intervals. ???? Ti-i-i-ime, is on my side. Yes, it is

[@maxkielbasa6079]

"Time flies when you're having fun" Albert Imstoned

[@joehebert789]

I have seen this exact post before.

[@D.Appeltofft]

It's all our combined spare time that's getting released back when the time-depositorys are full. All we get from our time-saving efforts are moments of boredom..

[@TG-Maverick22]

I absolutely love these explainer videos. Amd this channel.

[@floydthompson8668]

I used to be a bus driver. People will FIGHT over 3 minutes!!! Never mind if a foot of snow is on the ground or you have to load and secure a wheelchair, or get stopped at a train crossing, along with everyday slow rush hour traffic. I've been a watch collector most of my life, I even have an antique sun dial, and a Hewlett Packard HP-01. This is ABSOLUTELY THE BEST explanation of time I've ever heard!!! I love your videos on religious beliefs. What amazes me more is THE INTERSECTION OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITION. One day years ago, I walked pass two cars of women, one needing a jump. Seeing the hood opened, I asked if they were okay. After saying she needs a jump, I walked back home to get my car. As I was jumping her car, she noticed a nickel on the ground. The closest address was 555. It was about 5pm. She took these as "A SIGN FROM GOD" I (not just anyone) I was supposed to stop to help them. Three women made a circle around me and prayed for me. I agree with you, I never challenge what people believe. They were very sweet and meant very well, so I'm not making fun of them. But I find that blurred line between superstition and religion an interesting topic.

[@TrondBrgeKrokli]

Sundials should be a reasonable source of how the mark moves around a dial. Also, it fits well with how the modern, western writing goes from right to left. I sort of thought this before the video had started. Anyway, it has never weighed on my mind, I just took it as a matter of course. Thanks again to Chuck for providing more humor, as well as Neill for dramatizing the events leading up to how we have ended up with the clockwise movement.

[@theaccuser9000]

Writing goes left to right in the west.

[@jerelull9629]

"how the modern, western writing goes from right to left" ???? Where are you? In the northern part of the Western hemisphere, and in this entry window, it goes from left to right.

[@stevemawer848]

@@jerelull9629 You start to write at the left! :-)