Decimal (Metric) Clock

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John Hanna

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Apr 7, 2026, 3:24:32 PM (3 days ago) Apr 7
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Had 'time' to kill!

Regards,
    John
clock Decimal_3.tns

Andy Kemp

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Apr 7, 2026, 4:12:05 PM (3 days ago) Apr 7
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This reminded me of an article I wrote about a series of lessons I put together about 20 years ago looking at metric time!  It was a lot of fun...

Hope the attached article is of some interest to people...

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ATM-MT198-35-37.pdf

John Hanna

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Apr 7, 2026, 6:33:17 PM (3 days ago) Apr 7
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Thanks, Andy. Can't remember what turned me on to the idea but it was interesting and the metric time makes much more sense than AM/PM.

Another issue that folks struggle with is converting 24:60:60 to a decimal (as in for calculating rate* time: 7h15m = 7.25, not 7.15!!)

Regards,
    John

From: 'Andy Kemp' via tinspire <tins...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2026 4:11 PM
To: tins...@googlegroups.com <tins...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [tinspire] Decimal (Metric) Clock
 

Andy Kemp

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Apr 8, 2026, 4:49:54 AM (3 days ago) Apr 8
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Yep - 24:60:60 makes sense in a world where fractions rule, but decimals are much simpler and more flexible!

Christopher Arnold

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Apr 8, 2026, 6:09:03 AM (2 days ago) Apr 8
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Have you seen the May 24 MYP eAssessment question on this?


As ever,

Chris




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Karlheinz Haas

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Apr 9, 2026, 9:20:56 AM (yesterday) Apr 9
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And just as you gentlemen were pondering the pros and cons of metric time units, I came across this article on the BBC website: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260320-the-ancient-reason-there-are-60-minutes-in-an-hour-and-60-seconds-in-a-minute

A brief reference to the attempts to establish metric time units and an interesting summary as to where our time units actually might have come from: "The ancient reason there are 60 minutes in an hour."

Karlheinz

John Hanna

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Apr 9, 2026, 10:11:39 AM (yesterday) Apr 9
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Yeah, KH... I think that's where I got the idea from!

Also, perhaps the Egyptians had some say in it, too: 


Regards,
    John 


From: tins...@googlegroups.com <tins...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Karlheinz Haas <kh7...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2026 9:20 AM
To: tinspire <tins...@googlegroups.com>

John Hanna

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Apr 9, 2026, 10:23:44 AM (yesterday) Apr 9
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Also, I think the term 'watch' as a timepiece came from guards on 'watch'.

Regards,
    John 


From: tins...@googlegroups.com <tins...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Karlheinz Haas <kh7...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2026 9:20 AM
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