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After months of waiting, your birthday is here! You tear open a present. Wait. It’s not the new video game you wanted. It’s an analog watch. It has moving lines that point to numbers . . . and a weird ticking noise? Uh-oh. You can’t tell time on a clock like this!
Analog clocks have been around since the 1200s. They have lines, called hands, that point at numbers from 1 to 12. One hand is for the hours, and one is for the minutes. Many clocks have a third hand for the seconds. It’s your job to “read” the time—to see where the hands are pointing and figure out what time it is.
It wasn’t until the 1950s that the first digital clocks appeared. You don’t have to read the time on a digital clock—it’s clearly displayed on a screen. But analog clocks are still around today. And now you own one! Should you learn how to use it?
After months of waiting, it’s finally here: your birthday! You excitedly tear open a present.
Wait. It’s not the Nintendo Switch you’ve been begging for. It’s a watch. And not a smartwatch. It’s an analog watch, with moving hands and . . . a weird ticking noise?
Uh-oh. Maybe your parents didn’t know: You can’t tell time on a watch like this!
Don’t worry—you’re not alone. One small study even found that as many as 75 percent of 6- to 12-year-olds can’t read old-timey clocks.
The question is, does it matter?