Problem
Read the hour when the hand is between
An analog clock has its long (minute) hand 3 small ticks past the 9, and its short (hour) hand sitting between the 8 and the 9. I need to read off the time in hours and minutes.
Measurement & data
Your answer
Watch out The hour hand is closer to the 9, so it is tempting to read the hour as 9 — but between 8 and 9 the hour is still 8.
How to solve
Strategy Draw a Diagram — Reading a clock is a picture-reading task: I locate each hand on the dial. The minute marks follow the steady pattern of 5 minutes per big number, so I count from 12 to the 9 and add the extra ticks. The hour hand position tells me which completed hour we are in.
1STEP 1
Read the hour from the short hand
The short hand is between 8 and 9 and has not reached the 9 yet, so the hour is still 8.
A Grade 2 reader knows that until the hour hand reaches the next number, the hour stays at the smaller number.
2.MD.C.7Draw A DiagramBecause the hour hand sits between the 8 and the 9, the clock is still inside the 8 o'clock hour, so the hour reads 8.
Why?
The hour hand crawls slowly from one number to the next while a single hour goes by, so resting between the 8 and the 9 means it has already left the 8 but has not yet arrived at the 9.
Why?
Arriving exactly on the 9 is the moment that ends the whole hour running from 8 to 9, and since the hand has not arrived there, that hour has started but is not finished.
Why?
The stretch from 8 to 9 is one whole hour built out of all its little minute steps, and the hand only reaches the 9 once every one of those minute parts has been crossed.
🧱Whole is the sum of its partsBreak a thing into pieces with no gaps or overlaps and the pieces add back to the whole.
2STEP 2
Read the minutes from the long hand
Each big number is 5 minutes apart, so the 9 is the 45-minute mark; add the 3 small ticks: 45 + 3 = 48 minutes.
9 × 5 = 45, 45 + 3 = 48
Skip-counting by 5 to each number, then counting single ticks, is exactly how Grade 2 students read minutes.
2.MD.C.7Look For A Pattern3STEP 3
Combine the hour and minutes
The hour is 8 and the minutes are 48, so the clock shows 8:48.
Putting the two hand readings together gives the full time.
2.MD.C.7Draw A DiagramAnswer
8:48
At 48 minutes the hour hand should be almost all the way from 8 toward 9 — but still before 9 — which matches 'between 8 and 9, closer to the 9 side of the gap.' The reading is consistent.
Takeaway
This only needs the Grade 2 clock skill of counting by 5s to a number and adding the extra ticks!
- Read the hour from the short hand
- Read the minutes from the long hand
- Combine the hour and minutes
Where next?
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