Why do clocks turn clockwise

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The earliest sundials date from around BC and were used in Egyptian and Babylonian astronomy. For those of us who live in the northern hemisphere, we observe the sun rising in the east, reaching its zenith when it is in the south and setting in the west. Tracking its movement on a compass set to magnetic north, the sun will appear to move from right to left.

For a sundial to work properly north of the Equator, the point representing noon on the plate must be positioned to the north of the gnomon. What this means is that while the shadow cast by the gnomon reflects the apparent motion of the sun through the sky, it is represented as travelling in the opposite direction, from west through north to east.

It is argued that people had become accustomed to thinking about time moving from a westerly direction to the east. Whilst there is no way to substantiate this, it makes sense. Breguet No. The hour ring rotates counterclockwise; a pointer on the right shows mean solar time, while a moveable Sun pointer on the left shows the Equation of Time.

Image, Sotheby's. The explanation for the overwhelming preference for clockwise movement of clock hands is somewhat obscure, but a likely explanation and one often cited is that if you happen to be in the northern hemisphere, and you stand facing the Sun's path across the sky, you'll see it describe a clockwise arc as it travels from the east, to the southern sky overhead, and finally to the west, where it sets.

If you make a sundial, the shadow the sundial throws will likewise follow a clockwise course, going from west to north to east in opposition to the path of the Sun. Early clocks, so the thinking goes, simply reflected the apparent motion of the Sun, and of the gnomon pointer of a sundial.

Whether this is actually true is hard to establish with absolute certainty, but there is no reason mechanically for a clockwise direction of the hands to be preferred it is as easy to make a clock with anticlockwise motion of the hands, as clockwise and so, the idea that the movement of clock hands was generally made to ape the motion of a sundial's shadow seems a reasonable one. There may very well be documentation to that effect somewhere in the historical record; I haven't found anything specific but it's possible that somewhere out there is a manuscript in which a clockmaker from the s writes, " Apparent motion of the Sun as seen in the Northern Hemisphere.

Graphic, Weber State University, Utah. This raises a couple of interesting further questions, which are: what did people call clockwise motion before there were clocks? Follow him dlukenelson. Make Fun. Thrillist Serves. Enter your email address Subscribe. Social Media Links.