3 ms·
I think much like reading is abstracted to a point where the "shape" of the words conveys the meaning (and you can muddle up the inner letters without much loss
by leoedin 4y ago
I think much like reading is abstracted to a point where the "shape" of the words conveys the meaning (and you can muddle up the inner letters without much loss of information), when you use digital clocks enough the subconscious meaning of the shape of the numbers is what you see. I don't have to do a manual conversion to understand from the 16:54 on my phone screen that I have 5 minutes until 5pm - I just "know" that from a single glance.
Ultimately both digital and analog clocks are abstractions which convey meaning to whatever our internal sense of time is. I suspect the internal concept of time is quite different for everyone (hence why my mum is always late for everything...)
- Retric 4y agoExcept you just gave up a lot of precision doing that conversion. 16:54 might be 5 minutes and 0.1 seconds or 5 minutes and 59.9 seconds. If you can get that same feel for 16:54:36 then sure, but I personally don’t.
- djur 4y agoI can't say I've ever taken the second hand into account when looking at an analogue clock to check the time, nor do I usually find myself reading the minute hand more precisely than 5 minute intervals. I've certainly watched it slowly approach 12 when waiting to get out of class or something like that, but I could just as easily watch a number count up toward 60.
- Retric 4y agoIt’s a useful skill. Anyway, you don’t actually need a second hand to get sub minute precision as a minute hand should be continually sweeping through the range. Which is why people in the thread are talking about the feel of time. You can get an intuitive feel of how much you need to speed up etc.
- djur 4y agoI was aware I had poor eyesight, but I'm kind of amazed to hear that there's anyone who can clearly see the position of a minute hand between two tick marks on a clock from any reasonable distance.
- leoedin 4y agoHow many analogue clocks do you have which you trust to be that accurate? One huge advantage of a digital clock (on a phone, anyway) is that it's NTP synced with an atomic clock - so it's highly accurate and will remain that way. I know that when I'm running for a train, I rely on my phone more than my analogue wristwatch - because the analogue clock is rarely perfectly accurate, and that matters.
- Retric 4y agoMost of the ones I have used. The dial is just a display they can use NTP or RCC etc to stay synced. Ex: https://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Technology-WT-3129B-Atomic-Analog/dp/B0080JIVMW/ref=pd_bxgy_sccl_2/130-9504158-9783130 https://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Technology-WT-3129B-Atomic-Ana... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWV_(radio_station) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWV_(radio_station)
- fijiaarone 4y agoHe also lost a whole minutes precision rounding to 54 to 55