Why Do Clocks Move Clockwise?

If you grew up with an analog clock on the wall, you might remember learning that the “little hand” marked the hour and the “big hand” showed the minutes. And you probably never questioned why the hands moved in a particular direction — they simply turned “clockwise.” But the familiar movement of a clock’s hands is a human invention influenced by geography and centuries of history. To understand why clocks move the direction they do, we have to look back to a time before clockmakers designed the gears and pendulums of our analog clocks — ...Read More