Clock Hands Lengths: Hour 4", Minute 6", Second 7" | 24hr Travel

  • Thread starter Thread starter AfRoMaNn
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Clock
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
1 reply · 2K views
AfRoMaNn
Messages
15
Reaction score
0
The hands of a clock vary in length. If the hour handis 4 inches long, the monute hand 6 inches long, and the second hand 7 inches long, how far does this of each hand travel?
and also how many feet does the second hand travel in 24 hours, how many miles?
I thought so hard about how to go about this problem, and got no where, so if anyone can just give me a jump start to the problem it would be much appreciated!
 
Physics news on Phys.org
AfRoMaNn said:
The hands of a clock vary in length. If the hour handis 4 inches long, the monute hand 6 inches long, and the second hand 7 inches long, how far does this of each hand travel?

Although your wording does NOT make it clear, I am going to assume that the problem is asking how far the tip of each hand travels over one complete revolution. The things that I have assumed are in italics.

Here are some thoughts to get you started. Over a complete cycle, the tip of clock hand traces out a circle, agreed? The distance traveled by the tip of that clock hand over a complete cycle is therefore just the circumference of that circular path. Furthermore, since it's the tip of the hand, the radius of the circle is just given by the length of the clock hand. Do you understand so far? So, what is the relationship between the radius of a circle and its circumference?