What Time Is It?

[Eamonn]

This new role I have is taking a little getting used to.

The Quarterdeck wanted to fine people who called a chart a map and a line a rope.

I knew that I'd be the big offender and couldn't afford it!! So I put it to them that maybe this wasn't being very kind!! (Hey -They wanted 25 cents a pop!!)

We have been working on Time,speed and distance.

It's part of what they need for rank advancement.

All in all it's not that difficult!! I have to admit to being a little scared when we started as I had no idea.

Charting went well. In fact most of the navigation material we covered went well and a few of the Scouts are far better than I am (I don't think they know that yet!)

When it came time to do the Time, Speed and Distance, I really didn't think we would have much of a problem.

But we ran into problems with the 24 hour system of telling time.

Some of the answers that our Boatswain got back just didn't make any sense.

While I find it hard to believe we have two Sea Scouts who can't tell time!!

They can read a digital clock, but can't read a normal clock and they didn't have any idea that there are sixty minutes in an hour!!

I was really shocked.

I'm talking about kids who are 15 and 16 years old.

Eamonn.

(So much for my school taxes!)

[Vicki]

Eamonn, I smiled as I read your post. A few years back when our guys (now almost 14 and 11) were learning time, DH and I looked around our house and realized we had NO analog clocks! The microwave, oven, VCR (at the time, now it's the cable company's version of TiVO), our alarm clocks - all digital. No wonder they couldn't tell time! So we went out and bought an analog clock and mounted it in the kitchen to teach them how to tell time. They're still not very good at it, even though we also bought one of those clock face toys where you can move the arms. They got good enough at it to get out of second grade:

[OldGreyEagle]

You want real fun? When a scout asks what time it is, answer with "it's quarter past 5" or "A quarter to noon" (if indeed the time is, a scout is trustworthy)or even "half past 4". I did that a few times and I was stopped from being asked the time, sadly the scouts thought I didnt know how to tell time and was making things up

[Eamonn]

OGE

Back home we use that all the time!!

And yes there is 60 minutes in an English hour!

Eamonn

[scoutldr]

Just wait until you try to tell them the difference between 4 bells and 8 bells!

 

I work in a military organization, and the way I always remember is it just to add (or subtract) 12. If it's 5 pm, add 12 to make 17 (1700). If it's 2100, subtract 12 = 9 pm. Midnight is 2400. One minute later, it's 0001. And then there's OH-Dark-Thirty which is REALLY early!

[scoutldr]

Just wait until you try to tell them the difference between 4 bells and 8 bells!

 

I work in a military organization, and the way I always remember is it just to add (or subtract) 12. If it's 5 pm, add 12 to make 17 (1700). If it's 2100, subtract 12 = 9 pm. Midnight is 2400. One minute later, it's 0001. And then there's OH-Dark-Thirty which is REALLY early!

[SR540Beaver]

I've worked in data processing for 25 years and we use the 24 hour clock. I've never warmed up to it. I've always found it much easier to say it is 7 PM instead of 19:00 hours. Why have to stop and calculate the math when it can be communicated quicker and easier?

 

Of course I'm one of those landlubbers who can only remember port is the left side of the boat because both words have 4 letters.

[flmomscoutw3]

This is funny!! It's nice to chuckle every so often, this forum is kinda on the serious side at times.

In my home the boys were not allowed to have a digital watch until they could tell time. I tell my kids its quarter to four and half past seven, I'll have to try that at our next campout when a scout asks me the time, after of course I ask him where his watch is. (Be prepared!) I still remember as a teenager (well before digital clocks) a friend of mine not knowing that 45 past 7 and quarter till 8 were the same time. She and I still get a kick out of that. The most prominet clock in my house is an anolog that my mother-in-law embroidered. Eammon those kids on your ship need to cover up all the digitals at home and start learning how to read time! Good Luck! (and BTW what happened to mom and dad teaching time? Isn't that like tying shoes!)

[Trevorum]

scoutldr, when we have to get out of bed at that time of the night/morning, we call it, "Oh-stupid-thirty"

 

I remember when I was (as Eamonn would say) a lad. Learning to tell time was tough for me because one teacher would tell me that there are 25 cents in a quarter-dollar, and another teacher would tell me that there were 15 minutes in a quarter-hour. For a long time, I was convinced that one of them was mistaken.

 

I've never understood why the ancient Babylonians used a base 12 system, dividing the day into 12 parts and the night into 12 parts. And dividing each part into five twelves, and each smaller part also into five twelves. And then there is the year divided into 12 parts, and the circle divided into 30 twelves. And the length of a Roman foot divided into 12 parts.

 

Give me the metric system anyday! Thank goodness our founding fathers had the sense not to inherit the British pound sterling! (must have been Fanklin - he was a reasonable guy).

 

[Kahuna]

It is fun to discuss nonserious Scouting topics. Bill Hillcourt would go around at events where there were young Scouts and ask if they knew how to tell the time by the sun. Usually they didn't. He would take a small stick, put it in the center of his palm, look at the shadow carefully and tell the boys the exact time to the minute. Boys would go off in wonderment. They didn't notice Bill had turned his wristwatch around so it faced up and he was looking at the watch.