Random thought - why is the minute hand the longer one?

[Dmitry]

Hello,

I would like to know why and how the convention appeared to make the minutes hand the longer one. 

The second hand was typically small and on its own, if present at all.

One might think that the more the hand moves, the smaller it should probably be from the energy efficiency perspective. The hour hand moves the least, so it can be the largest, and it is more important to know, if it is 3 or 4 in thers of hours, instead of 15 or 20 minutes past.

Any insights will be much appreaciated.

There is an argument that it might have been carried over from the clock days, where time was set by moving the minute hand, as making the minute hand shorter would make the pushing of the hand much more difficult, but I am not buying it since the invenntion of the setting mechanism could have addressed it.

Thank you.

[Graziano]

Hi there Dmitry ,minutes must be more precisely indicated to give an accurate time reading; simply pointing somewhere between numbers won't work. Therefore, the minute hand extends farther than its counterpart usually to the markers on the edge of the dial so as to provide an exact accounting of the time .With the minute hand being longer, you smoothly travel over the hour hand without it getting in the way.The fact that the minute hand is always longer, and often thinner, than the hour hand, serves a very specific purpose, though. The hour hand doesn't have to point specifically at the hour number it relates to for a person to know what time it is. For example, if the hour hand is pointing anywhere between two and three, anyone capable of telling time will take this to mean it's two o'clock. Probably carried over from early cock days when you pushed the minute hand to set the time so that you would get past the hour hand without touching it .

Cheers ,Graziano

[Shane]

1 hour ago, Graziano said:

more precisely indicated

I would have to agree with Graziano.  Knowing it's before the hour or past the hour is all the hour hand really needs to tell you.  How much before or past is significantly more important (if not everything happens on the hour).  The second hand is typically much thiner (I assume) because if you are bothering to have one it would be easier to see which one of the five, six or how many beets between the seconds it has, you were looking at.

Shane 

6 hours ago, Dmitry said:

energy efficiency perspective.

If efficiency was the main goal the hands would (as you suggested) probably look much different (thinner, shorter and probably counter balanced) but these changes would interfere with your ability to quickly, accurately and reliably interpret the time.