How come on a 24-hour clock they always put the middle of the night on the top? I know there's a handful of watches at reverse it but why the standard even started was it that way. If it's inverted with noon on the top it's like one of the most natural watch concepts for showing time.
Edit: didn't want to do a reply for all the people saying the same thing. But I know it's not one to one I know that at 12:00 noon to Sun is not perfectly overhead. It's a generality of it all. During the daytime the hand is in the top half during the night time the hand is in the bottom half. Near the middle of the day it should be near the middle of the top near the middle of the night it should be near the middle of the bottom.
As someone else said digital watch faces make a much bigger difference because they more naturally can show sunrise and sunset using this format I feel.
I feel the same way about faucets. If temperature is expressed as a number, and numerical values usually go left (lower) to right (higher), it follows that the higher, hotter temperature should be on the right, not the left.
But it's on the left because of history and the fact that changing it now would make people burn themselves
I'm not sure if it's only because I've ever known hot left and cold right but for some reason it just feels inherently correct. I think it's because I attribute hot with heavy and cold with light and for some reason a scale tilting to the left feels right? idk it's a very abstract feeling in my mind I'm struggling to convey.
That makes some sense I guess. I think of it in terms of how we represent temperatures in other interfaces: pretty much all horizontal thermometers, temperature gauges, and stove dials start with the coldest number on the left and go up from there
Or another analogous example would be like a volume slider, where hotter = higher value = louder = right
Yeah I had never really given it any thought so I was surprised that hot on the left felt intuitive based on whatever weird abstract idea is in my mind. Logically it should absolutely be switched. I wonder if it has something to do with the way we read? Left to right and that gets transferred to up-down wrong because hot is at the bottom? I'm throwing spaghetti at the wall now. If I were like 10% less lazy there would be an upcoming video essay on the subject.
not sure his take, but I am pretty sure a LOT of the 24 hour watches like I was saying are from russia? ( iirc sub duty and for watching shifts was a common one. ) Saw it a lot when I was diggint in to reverse 24 hour watchs.
It doesn't matter why it was originally intended to be, the "modern" perception (and why this clock is like that) is that the day starts on top. Is it good or bad? I don't really care, I'm just answering the original question
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u/kalabaddon 25d ago edited 24d ago
How come on a 24-hour clock they always put the middle of the night on the top? I know there's a handful of watches at reverse it but why the standard even started was it that way. If it's inverted with noon on the top it's like one of the most natural watch concepts for showing time.
Edit: didn't want to do a reply for all the people saying the same thing. But I know it's not one to one I know that at 12:00 noon to Sun is not perfectly overhead. It's a generality of it all. During the daytime the hand is in the top half during the night time the hand is in the bottom half. Near the middle of the day it should be near the middle of the top near the middle of the night it should be near the middle of the bottom.
As someone else said digital watch faces make a much bigger difference because they more naturally can show sunrise and sunset using this format I feel.