This thread makes me think about how the common usage "a quarter past" and "a quarter two" likely come from the clock dial, and how we don't use that kind of la

This thread makes me think about how the common usage "a quarter past" and "a quarter two" likely come from the clock dial, and how we don't use that kind of language in other measuring scenarios - with a metre rule saying "a quarter to three metres", and how we don't say "a third past" or "a third to" meaning twenty minutes past the hour and twenty minutes to the hour.