ITTUX

CLOCK
TIME
 CLOCK HISTORY
You can’t deny how useful they’re; thanks to them you know if
it's morning, afternoon or night; if it’s early, if it’s time to go to
school or a walk, or if it was time for lunch.
The clock, that machine to measure
time in hours, minutes and seconds,
uses a source of mechanical or
electrical energy to move hands.
However, knowing time
goes back to the very
existence of humanity,
since people began using
various mechanisms to
measure it. The Arabs
mediate time with
astronomical calculations,
which were known at the
time for the great accuracy
of their predictions.
Sun clocks, for example,
determined the time based on the
projection of the shadow on
certain objects.
We also have the hourglass, in
which it falls from an upper
compartment to a lower one
through a narrow neck. When the
clock has completely fallen, the
clock is reversed and the
procedure begins again.
It’s not known who invented the mechanical watch, with
hands that move slowly through the gear action, although
the first ones that have been found are from the year 1290.
Its mechanism consists of a set of rotating wheels driven by
a weight hung on a rope.

The watchmaker Christian Huygens was the

one who created the pendulum clock in the
18th century. But before Galileo had made a
sketch of a pendulum clock in 1641.
Currently, there are electric, battery-powered, submersible
in water and shockproof that aren’t susceptible to
magnetism and have automatic winding systems.
Warren Alvin Marrison, put quartz crystals on an electric
watch. Thus arises the quartz crystal clock, which is very
accurate, only delays or advances 3 seconds a year. And the
most accurate and modern in the world are atomic clocks,
which are used to measure world time, in accordance with
the rotation of the earth. The delay presented by the atomic
clock is one second every 300 years.
The hour is a unit of time that corresponds to the twenty-
fourth part of an average solar day.
It is used for civil time and comprises 60 minutes or 3600
seconds, although small irregularities in the rotation of the
Earth make adjustments necessary.
Since 1967 the second is measured
from very precise atomic properties,
intercalar seconds are used to
maintain the time standards close to
the average solar day.
How to
say the
time in
English
1. The 12-hour-system in English
• In English there is no 24-hour-system (sometimes it
is used on TV and in timetables).
• 15:00 is 3 o'clock (p.m.) (on TV: fifteenhundred).
That's why you use a.m. (Latin: ante meridiem)
and p.m. (post meridiem) in situations where it is
necessary to point out that you want to say in the
morning or in the evening. In other situations (or
when it is clear that school starts in the morning and
the party in the evening) it is left out.
2. When to use o'clock
• o'clock (abbreviation: of the clock) only on the
hour
3. Quarter past and to
• quarter → 15 minutes
half → 30 minutes

4. The minutes
• multiplies of 5: leave out the word minutes (but: 6.01
→ It's one minute past 6.)
 Examples
• Excuse me, could you please tell me what time it is? – Perdona,
podrías decirme la hora, ¿por favor?
• It’s five o’clock – Son las cinco en punto
• It’s 5 pm / It’s 5 in the afternoon – Son las cinco de la tarde
• It’s 6:52 am / It’s eight minutes to seven – Faltan ocho minutos para
las siete
• It’s 3:12 pm / It’s twelve minutes past three – Pasan doce minutos
de las tres
• It’s 9:59 / It’s nearly ten o’clock – Son casi las diez en punto