Half Past: What Happens When the Minute Hand Points Straight Down

This idea walks around your house all day. Trains, buses, and radio programs often run on the half hour, so this reading matters as much as the hour. This is worth learning because half hours appear on schedules just as often as full hours.

Watch for it today, and when you spot it, tell someone what you noticed and how you knew. Ask yourself where else the same idea might be hiding, then go and look.

This is a good thing for a young mathematician to know. When the minute hand points straight down at the six, half an hour has passed. That is called half past. The hour hand will be sitting halfway between two numbers, which is a helpful clue.

If the hour hand is between three and four and the minute hand points down, the time is half past three, also called three thirty. Half past means thirty minutes have gone by.

Watch out for the hour hand at half past. It will be sitting between two numbers, and some people read the number ahead. At half past three, the hour hand is past the three but has not reached four, so the hour is still three. Do it carefully rather than quickly, and thank God for a mind that can learn.