Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[Bexx27]

I learned hour hand, minute hand, and second hand. I've never heard of the first-second-third designation for clock hands and it seems needlessly confusing. Why not just call them by the unit of time so everyone knows what you're talking about?

[Lynn2000]

The second hand of a clock is the minutes hand (the long one). 

To tell time on a clock one only needs one hand, the hour hand.  At one o'clock it will be on the one.  As the hour progresses it nudges along towards the two.  You can roughly figure out how much after one it is simply by where the hour hand falls between the one and the two (only 1/4 of the way to two?  Its 1:15ish.  Just over halfway to two?  Its 1:38ish.  etc).  To be more precise in what time it is, many clocks/watches will add a second (as in not the first, but another, second one) hand.  This hand will tell you the actual minutes after the hour the first hand is.

The third hand is the one that shows the actual seconds-as-in-unit-of-time, and is often not included.

You can google image "single hand watch" for examples of what an 'hours only' handed clock/watch look like. Sun dials are also single 'hand' clocks.

Okay, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has thought about two different meanings for the "second hand"! Maybe sunnygirl is right and it's some kind of geographic distinction, but here in the Midwest we are at the intersection of two different preferences. Kind of like how we say both "soda" and "pop." Usually I encounter this confusion when someone says, urgently, "What does the second hand read?!"  A little more pressure than requesting a carbonated beverage...

[mmswm]

To add a third option, I was always taught the "big hand" (hour), the "little hand" (minute), and the second hand.  I distinctly remember seeing a clock with a second hand for the first time.  I'm sure they existed, but neither my parents or my schools had them.  I remember sitting in my doctor's office when I was 7 years old, already competent at telling time, and "discovering" the second hand.

[Lynn2000]

To add a third option, I was always taught the "big hand" (hour), the "little hand" (minute), and the second hand.  I distinctly remember seeing a clock with a second hand for the first time.  I'm sure they existed, but neither my parents or my schools had them.  I remember sitting in my doctor's office when I was 7 years old, already competent at telling time, and "discovering" the second hand.

But wait... the "big hand" is actually the smallest/shortest hand on the clock! My brain, my brain... 

[WillyNilly]

To add a third option, I was always taught the "big hand" (hour), the "little hand" (minute), and the second hand.  I distinctly remember seeing a clock with a second hand for the first time.  I'm sure they existed, but neither my parents or my schools had them.  I remember sitting in my doctor's office when I was 7 years old, already competent at telling time, and "discovering" the second hand.

Ok the "second hand" counting minutes or seconds aside, how have you functioned?  The little/short hand tells you hours and the big/longer hand tells you minutes.  That, there is no question over.
 

[mmswm]

To add a third option, I was always taught the "big hand" (hour), the "little hand" (minute), and the second hand.  I distinctly remember seeing a clock with a second hand for the first time.  I'm sure they existed, but neither my parents or my schools had them.  I remember sitting in my doctor's office when I was 7 years old, already competent at telling time, and "discovering" the second hand.

Ok the "second hand" counting minutes or seconds aside, how have you functioned?  The little/short hand tells you hours and the big/longer hand tells you minutes.  That, there is no question over.
 

You're talking length.  The hour hand is fatter and the minute hand is thinner.  And, I never said it made sense, just that this was the way it was taught.

[2littlemonkeys]

Here's one that I have with a relative on a fairly regular basis.  I'm perplexed every single time.

One of my kid is getting over one of the many bugs going around.  Every time one of the kids is sick, Relative wants to know where they got it.  Since they go to Germ Factories (aka school) and I don't generally keep them in a bubble AND I work in an office with lots of other people, I don't really dwell on it.  Unless I was sick first, I usually just assume they got it at school. 

But Relative keeps asking me, "Where do you suppose she got it?"  I don't know if she wants to know if it was Jimmy Johnson who passed the dreadful germ to DD on Tuesday, January 22 at 9:37am near the water fountain or what.   I can see it it were a very rare disease that no one else had but something common that running rampant?  Who cares?

[Moonie]

Just tell her they got it off of Craigslist 

[Lynn2000]

Here's one that I have with a relative on a fairly regular basis.  I'm perplexed every single time.

One of my kid is getting over one of the many bugs going around.  Every time one of the kids is sick, Relative wants to know where they got it.  Since they go to Germ Factories (aka school) and I don't generally keep them in a bubble AND I work in an office with lots of other people, I don't really dwell on it.  Unless I was sick first, I usually just assume they got it at school. 

But Relative keeps asking me, "Where do you suppose she got it?"  I don't know if she wants to know if it was Jimmy Johnson who passed the dreadful germ to DD on Tuesday, January 22 at 9:37am near the water fountain or what.   I can see it it were a very rare disease that no one else had but something common that running rampant?  Who cares?

My boss, who is paranoid about illness, is like this.  Every time someone in the office gets sick she wants to fearfully speculate on where they got it from, i.e., could it have been from someone else in the office, i.e., could my boss be at risk herself. She'll ask employees about their symptoms in detail and compare them from case to case, even over several weeks. I try to give her as little information as possible now.

[Elisabunny]

Here's one that I have with a relative on a fairly regular basis.  I'm perplexed every single time.

One of my kid is getting over one of the many bugs going around.  Every time one of the kids is sick, Relative wants to know where they got it.  Since they go to Germ Factories (aka school) and I don't generally keep them in a bubble AND I work in an office with lots of other people, I don't really dwell on it.  Unless I was sick first, I usually just assume they got it at school. 

But Relative keeps asking me, "Where do you suppose she got it?"  I don't know if she wants to know if it was Jimmy Johnson who passed the dreadful germ to DD on Tuesday, January 22 at 9:37am near the water fountain or what.   I can see it it were a very rare disease that no one else had but something common that running rampant?  Who cares?

My boss, who is paranoid about illness, is like this.  Every time someone in the office gets sick she wants to fearfully speculate on where they got it from, i.e., could it have been from someone else in the office, i.e., could my boss be at risk herself. She'll ask employees about their symptoms in detail and compare them from case to case, even over several weeks. I try to give her as little information as possible now.

Youngest DD (who has the same condition as YS did) has had weird bloodcounts lately.  The doc asked if she had been exposed to anything.  I pretty much looked at him like he had two heads, and answered, "She's in first grade."  To his credit, he laughed.  He's also asked about bruises on her legs and such (totally normal, I keep track), only for me to remind him that she's 6.

[LadyJaneinMD]

I learned that the second hand was the hand that counted the seconds in a minute.

And I've heard them called the Hours hand, the Minutes hand, and the Seconds hand.   

[Dr. F.]

I learned that the second hand was the hand that counted the seconds in a minute.

And I've heard them called the Hours hand, the Minutes hand, and the Seconds hand.

threadjack

Now I have They Might Be Giants stuck in my head.

/threadjack

[mandycorn]

I made the (train) ticket controller* brain hurt last time. While getting out of station C my ticket wouldn't work, and we have those doors that only open with a valid ticket, no way to pass above or under, and it's on another level as the counter or anyone that could help (stupid set up).
I was pondering going behind someone, which would be considered fraud even with a valid ticket if you get a grumpy controller.
Thankfully there was a pair of controllers so I told one of them that my ticket didn't work, and we had a few minutes of miscomunication, he thought I couldn't get in (even tho I was already 'in') while I couldn't get 'out'. Mix that with the fact that I explained it had been validated at 2 train station (perfectly normal and ok) that where 1h from station C...

*(I'm sorry, couldn't wikipedia the correct word, it's the person that checks the validity of your ticket inside trains/metro or even stations)

Why would he think you wanted in if you were already in? That's bizarre!

And I think the word you want might be conductor.

[Shalamar]

My mum used to make my head hurt because she was convinced that leaving the house with wet hair caused colds.  When I said that wasn't true, she said triumphantly "Then why do you get so many more colds than I do?"  I retorted "Because you work in an office with 30 other people, while I go to a university that holds hundreds and hundreds of people."  She didn't like that.   

[Yvaine]

The second hand of a clock is the minutes hand (the long one). 

To tell time on a clock one only needs one hand, the hour hand.  At one o'clock it will be on the one.  As the hour progresses it nudges along towards the two.  You can roughly figure out how much after one it is simply by where the hour hand falls between the one and the two (only 1/4 of the way to two?  Its 1:15ish.  Just over halfway to two?  Its 1:38ish.  etc).  To be more precise in what time it is, many clocks/watches will add a second (as in not the first, but another, second one) hand.  This hand will tell you the actual minutes after the hour the first hand is.

The third hand is the one that shows the actual seconds-as-in-unit-of-time, and is often not included.

You can google image "single hand watch" for examples of what an 'hours only' handed clock/watch look like. Sun dials are also single 'hand' clocks.

Okay, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has thought about two different meanings for the "second hand"! Maybe sunnygirl is right and it's some kind of geographic distinction, but here in the Midwest we are at the intersection of two different preferences. Kind of like how we say both "soda" and "pop." Usually I encounter this confusion when someone says, urgently, "What does the second hand read?!"  A little more pressure than requesting a carbonated beverage...

I'm from the Midwest and have never encountered first-second-third hands, only hour-minute-second. But soda/pop was a source of endless debate at my college, with a sizable minority coming in from the South and arguing that they're all Coke.