Change the hours, minutes, and seconds with the sliders to see how the clock hands move, then work out how much time has passed in the quiz below.
Unlike the numbers we're used to, where the next place starts every 10, the world of time rolls over every 60. 60 seconds make 1 minute, and 60 minutes make 1 hour. That's why the second hand goes all the way around every 60 seconds, the minute hand every 60 minutes, and the hour hand every 12 hours.
We use this rule of 60 to find the difference between two times, too. For example, from 3:40 to 4:15, 20 minutes pass to reach 4:00, and then 15 more minutes pass โ so a total of 35 minutes went by. If the "minutes" of the later time are smaller than the "minutes" of the earlier time, you can borrow 60 minutes from the hour to make the subtraction work.
Move the hour, minute, and second sliders and watch how the minute hand jumps the moment the seconds reach 60, and how the hour hand jumps the moment the minutes reach 60.