Elapsed time, to the minute
You learn to tell the time on a clock by counting the minutes.
How to work it out
- 60 minus start minutes gives time to the hour.
- Add the finish minutes.
- If within the same hour, subtract minutes directly.
A worked example
What time is it? (Small hand at 6, big hand at 7)
- Count the minutes from 12 to 7: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35.
- The big hand at 7 is 35 minutes.
- The small hand at 6 means 6 o'clock.
- It is 6:35.
Another example
What time is it? (Small hand between 2 and 3, big hand at 10)
- Count the minutes from 12 to 10: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50.
- The big hand at 10 is 50 minutes.
- The small hand between 2 and 3 means almost 3 o'clock.
- It is 2:50.
Try it yourself
How many minutes is that?
From 13:26 to 14:03
How many minutes is that?
From 7:56 to 8:41
Watch out
You do 100 − 38 instead of 60 − 38.
An hour has 60 minutes. So up to the whole hour it is 60 minus the minutes of the start time.
You subtract the minutes across the hour: from 10:38 to 11:12 you want to do 12 minus 38.
That doesn’t work. Count on to the whole hour first, then count on further.
Tips
- Count in 5s to the number the big hand is at to find the minutes.
Why it works
From one number to the next on a clock is 5 minutes. You can count from 12 by 5s until you reach the number the big hand is at. That gives you the minutes. The small hand tells you the hour.