Clock Arithmetic

Clock Arithmetic

The topic of time has always been one of interest to me at least on a philosophical basis. Through the works of Einstein, ancient timepieces and calendars such as Stonehenge, and even theories on past and present, time is everywhere. I chose this topic to perhaps explore further the relevance of clocks and timepieces in mathematics and arithmetic. To gain a better understanding of the mathematical features of time would be rewarding knowing that philosophy and mathematics are closely related.

Through what I’ve seen in clock arithmetic the concepts could be taught and applied as early as first grade due to the nature of addition and subtraction involved. Clock Arithmetic is also used for technological reasons. Computer games are manufactured using clock arithmetic to base a character’s position due to the resolution of the screen on a certain axis. Example: Suppose you are playing a video game and the character in the game (let's call him Max) is walking from the left side of the screen to the right side. Max gets to the right side of the screen and keeps walking; he disappears and reappears on the left side of the screen again. If the screen is 12 inches wide and we are keeping track of how far Max is from the left side of the screen, then as soon as he is 12 inches from the left side it's as if he was back at the beginning again. If you put it pictorially, against a clock you’d find that Max would start and end up at the same point.

Now I’d like to downgrade and put things in an elementary perspective. If it is 3 o'clock and we add 5 hours to the time that will put us at 8 o'clock, so we could write 3 + 5 = 8. But if it is 11 o'clock and we add 5 hours the time will be 4 o'clock, so we should write 11 + 5 = 4. Now everyone knows that 11 + 5 =16, but there is no 16 on the clock (unless you're on military time). Every time we go past 12 on the clock we start counting the hours at 1 again. If we add numbers the way we add hours on the clock, we say that we are doing clock arithmetic. So, in clock arithmetic 8 + 6 = 2, because 6 hours after 8 o'clock is 2 o'clock.