<p>While looking at this photo of a 24-hour clock: <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Greenwich_clock_1-manipulated.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Greenwich_clock_1-manipulated.jpg</a></p>

<p>... it struck me that, maybe, it could be seen as a visual representation of how the sun "travels" (from our perspective) "around" the Earth, here seen "from the side" from space.</p>

<p>But I'm not sure it holds up. Is this accurate? I can almost swear that I've seen clocks where the "hour dial" is a sun, which would further hint at this.</p>

<p>If this is the case, I find it very fascinating and it will make me look at clocks in a whole new way. (Sadly, all the ones I've ever seen in real life have been 12-hour ones, so this visual representation cannot hold up for those.)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-18T07:45:14.900Z
"Hour thingie", "hour dial"? Do you mean [hour hand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_face)?
Fred
<sun><time>
Does the hour thingie on a 24-hour clock represent the apparent "motion" of the Sun "around" the Earth?
Brytan Benko
# Does the hour thingie on a 24-hour clock represent the apparent "motion" of the Sun "around" the Earth?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-05-17)

While looking at this photo of a 24-hour clock: <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Greenwich_clock_1-manipulated.jpg>

... it struck me that, maybe, it could be seen as a visual representation of how the sun "travels" (from our perspective) "around" the Earth, here seen "from the side" from space.

But I'm not sure it holds up. Is this accurate? I can almost swear that I've seen clocks where the "hour dial" is a sun, which would further hint at this.

If this is the case, I find it very fascinating and it will make me look at clocks in a whole new way. (Sadly, all the ones I've ever seen in real life have been 12-hour ones, so this visual representation cannot hold up for those.)

**Tags:** sun, time

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: "Hour thingie", "hour dial"? Do you mean [hour hand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_face)?  

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## 0 answers

