Video Transcript
Telling Time in Words: Time to the
Quarter Hour
In this video, we’re going to learn
how to tell the time to the quarter hour on analog clocks. We’re also going to learn how to
record these times in words.
When we first start learning to
tell the time, we learn what happens when the minute hand makes a whole turn all the
way around the clock face. We learn o’clock times, don’t
we? And after we’ve learned all about
o’clock times, we go on to think about what happens when the minute hand only turns
half the way around the clock face. In other words, we start to learn
half-past times too. In this video, we’re going to carry
on using our knowledge of o’clock and half-past times. But instead of thinking about the
minute hand making a whole turn or half a turn around the clock face, we’re going to
be thinking about quarter turns. What happens when the minute hand
turns a quarter of the way around the clock face?
Let’s remind ourselves what a
quarter looks like. Now when we divide a shape or a
number or an amount into quarters, we divide it into four equal parts. Our analog clock faces that we’re
going to be using in this video are circles, aren’t they? And we can divide a circle into
four equal parts very quickly by drawing one line down the center — that’s the same
as splitting it into half, isn’t it? — but then drawing another line
like this. Hopefully, you can see that there
are four parts, but also that they’re exactly the same size; they’re quarters.
Let’s do the same to this analog
clock face, one line down the middle and another line going straight across. So if we’re going to think about
telling the time to the quarter hour in this video, we need to think about what the
time is when the minute hand points to the 12, the number three, the number six, and
also nine.
Let’s jump in quarters around the
clock face and see where we end up. When the minute hand points to the
number 12, we know that a new hour is about to start and it’s an o’clock time. Let’s draw an o’clock time, shall
we? Let’s draw the time 10 o’clock. And at 10 o’clock, the minute hand
is pointing to the 12 and the hour hand is pointing right at the number 10.
Right, let’s start our minute hand
moving. Let’s make it turn a quarter of the
way around the clock face. We know that when the minute hand
points to the three, it’s turned a quarter of the way around the clock face. It’s a quarter of the way past the
o’clock time. We describe this time as a
quarter-past time. So if we want to draw the time
quarter past 10, we’re going to need to draw the minute hand pointing to the number
three. This shows that it’s a quarter-past
time. And we’d also expect that the hour
hand has moved a little on its way to the number 11. We could read this time then as
quarter past 10.
Should we make another quarter
turn? Now we know this one, don’t we? When the minute hand points to the
number six, it’s gone half the way around the clock face. It’s a half-past time, isn’t
it? So, in the example that we’re
drawing, at half past 10, we’d expect the minute hand to be pointing to the number
six and the hour hand would’ve gone halfway past the number 10 on its way to number
11, somewhere there. We’ve got two more quarter turns to
make.
Now, when the minute hand points to
the number nine, we’re getting very close to the next o’clock time, aren’t we? How much is left to turn? There’s a quarter turn to go. We call this a quarter-to time
because instead of thinking about the last o’clock time, we’re beginning to think
about the new one that’s coming up. Now in our example, the next
o’clock time is going to be 11 o’clock. So the time when the minute hand is
pointing to the nine is going to be quarter to 11. We know this because the hour hand
is a little bit away from the number 11, but it’s almost there. Let’s make our final quarter
turn.
There we are, back to an o’clock
time again, ready for a new hour to start. And in our example, the new o’clock
time is 11 o’clock, so we need to have the hour hand pointing directly to the number
11. So hopefully, you can see how the
time’s going to carry on in quarter turns: 11 o’clock, quarter past 11, half past
11, quarter to 12, 12 o’clock, and so on. Do you think you can tell the time
to the quarter hour now? Let’s try answering some questions
where we have to practice what we’ve learned.
What time is it? Find the missing number. It is quarter past what.
This question asks us to read this
analog clock to find out what time it is. But if we look at the sentence at
the bottom of the question, we’ve been given part of the time already. We know that it’s a quarter-past
time. What does this mean? Well, we know that a half-past time
is where the minute hand was pointing to the 12 but has now made half a turn around
the clock face. It’s pointing to the six. So we know that a quarter-past time
is where the minute hand has only moved a quarter of the way around the clock
face. In other words, it’s pointing to
the number three.
Can you see on the picture that the
longer hand, which is the minute hand, is pointing directly to the three, isn’t
it? We can see that it’s turned a
quarter of the way around the clock face. But how would we say this time? It’s quarter past what? Well, to find our missing number,
we need to look at the hour hand. Where is this pointing?
If we look at the hour hand, we can
see that it’s not pointing to any number at all; it’s in between two numbers. It’s in between the number three
and the number four. Now, we know at three o’clock, that
hour hand would’ve been pointing right at the number three, wouldn’t it? But now time has moved on a little
bit past three o’clock. It’s quarter past three. We know that this is a quarter-past
time because the minute hand is pointing to the number three. And we know what missing number it
is because we can then look at the hour hand and see that it has moved slightly past
the number three. It is quarter past three.
Fill in the blank: What time is
it? It is quarter to what.
In this question, we’re given an
analog clock, which is a clock that has hands on it, and we’re being asked what time
it is. Now, we’ve got part of a sentence
here to help us. It is quarter to something. What does it mean for a time to be
quarter to? We know that an analog clock face
like this shows one hour all the way around. We also know that if we split the
clock face into four equal parts, this is the same as splitting it into quarters,
quarters of a whole hour.
Now we know when the minute hand
points to the number 12 like this, it’s an o’clock time. But when the minute hand hasn’t
quite got to the 12 yet and is pointing to the number nine, it’s still got a quarter
turn to go until it gets to the 12. That’s how we know this is a
quarter-to time; the minute hand is pointing to the nine. But what number are we going to use
to fill in the blank? It’s quarter to what?
To understand this, we need to look
at the hour hand. We can see that the hour hand isn’t
pointing to a number; it’s in between two numbers. It’s in between the number three
and four. In other words, we’ve already gone
past three o’clock, and we’re on our way to four o’clock, but we haven’t quite
gotten there yet. But we know that once the minute
hand makes that final quarter turn, it will be four o’clock. It is quarter to four. Instead of looking backwards at the
o’clock time that’s already gone, we’re now looking forwards to the one that’s
coming up. The time on the clock is quarter to
four.
Chloe and Natalie draw quarter past
eight. Who is right?
In this question, we’re told that
two children, Chloe and Natalie, have both drawn the time quarter past eight. And we’re shown two clocks. Now let’s spend a moment looking at
these two clocks. What’s the same and what’s
different?
Well, if we look where the hands on
each clock are pointing, we can see that both Chloe and Natalie have drawn their
hands so that one of them is pointing to the number three, or at least close to the
number three, and the other hand has been drawn so that it’s pointing to the number
eight, or near to the number eight. But if we carry on looking more
closely at these clock faces, we can see that they’re slightly different. Chloe has drawn the minute hand, or
the longer hand, pointing to the number three. But on Natalie’s clock, she’s
decided to point this to the number eight.
And the hour hands are different
too. Chloe’s decided to draw her hour
hand pointing just after the number eight. But Natalie’s decided to draw hers
pointing just before the number three. In other words, it’s almost as if
the hands have been swapped around from Chloe to Natalie. Perhaps the way we’re going to
answer this question best is by trying to draw a quarter past eight for
ourselves.
To help us, let’s draw some times
of our own. What does the “eight” in quarter
past eight mean? It means that it’s a quarter of an
hour past eight o’clock. And we know what the hands of a
clock look like at eight o’clock, don’t we? The minute hand points straight up
to the number 12. And the hour hand that tells us
that it’s eight o’clock points to the number eight. A quarter-past time is where the
minute hand has moved a quarter of the way around the clock face. Instead of pointing to the number
12, it’s now pointing to the number three. And the hour hand, which was
pointing straight at the number eight, has now moved a quarter of the way towards
the number nine. It’s moved slightly past the number
eight. This is what the time quarter past
eight looks like.
Can you see who’s drawn it
correctly on their clock face? It’s Chloe. On Chloe’s clock, the minute hand
is pointing to the number three and the hour hand is just past the number eight. Natalie’s got the right idea, but
she’s muddled up the clock hands, which is an easy mistake to make when you’re
telling the time. It’s something we need to watch
for. The person who’s drawn quarter past
eight correctly is Chloe.
What have we learned in this
video? We’ve learned how to tell the time
to the quarter hour on analog clocks. We’ve also learned how to record
these times in words.
