Critical Thinking Puzzles: Clock Problem ?

September 30, 2008

Suppose a clock's seconds hand is exactly on a
second’s mark (one of the sixty) and exactly 22
second marks ahead of the hour hand. What is
the time?

Anonymous said...: Since it is exactly 22 sec behind the second hand, the hour hand must also be on a seconds (=minute) mark. This only happens at o'clock and every 12 min after that. (eg 1:00, 1:12, 1:24,...2:00, 2:12, etc)

At all of these times, the second hand is pointing directly at the 12. The hour hand is 22 marks behind which puts it 2 marks before the 8 (=3 after the 7).

Therefore the time is 7 + (3 x 12) = 7:36.; October 14, 2008 at 7:49 PM

Critical Thinking Puzzles