Calculate Angle between Clock Hands
Calculator for the angle between the two hands of a clock and the angle of hour hand and minute hand.
Please enter a time of day. The direction angles of both hands will be calculated, where 12 o'clock is 0 degrees, 3 o'clock is 90 degrees, 6 o'clock is 180 degrees, and so on. Then the angles between the two hands are calculated. Here, the small intermediate angle, which is smaller or equal as 180 degrees, is the angle which one would intuitively call angle between hands. The large intermediate angle is the angle with the longer distance.
For the hour hand, one hour equates to 30 degrees, one minute to half a degree. For the minute hand, one minute equates to 6 degrees.
Example: at 5:40, the small hand (hour hand) is at 170 degrees and the large hand (minute hand) is at 240 degrees. The small intermediate angle is 70 degrees and the large intermediate angle is 290 degrees.
Sometimes you hear statements like something is at three o'clock. This refers to the hour hand, which at that time points exactly to the right, i.e., at 90 degrees. Eleven o'clock is accordingly at the front left, or 330 degrees. Six o'clock is at 180 degrees, which is exactly behind you.
Something else, however, is that you should have your hands at "ten to two" when driving. The left hand is then at 10 o'clock, since ten to is coincidentally at 10. Five to, on the other hand, would be at 11. The right hand, however, should be exactly at 2, at 60 degrees, not just before 2 at 55 degrees, where the hour hand on the clock is at 13:50. Therefore, the "ten to two" hand position on the steering wheel is actually not possible for correct minute hands and hour hands on a clock. However, the difference of five degrees is not particularly significant for the hands.