Donate SIGN UP
Home > Technology > Clock faces

Clock faces

Avatar Image
brianmcgeary | 07:40 Fri 04th Apr 2003 | Technology
4 Answers
Why does every clock and watch face bearing roman numerals always have 4 O'Clock represented as four straight lines, never IV?
prev how can I delete a url from the drop down address menu on the top of the browser page
  
next Chatting
Gravatar

Answers

1 to 4 of 4rss feed

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by brianmcgeary. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
Avatar Image Pinotage
Its just to make it look better symetrically, as the IIII balances the VIII at the same place on the other side. However there are some old clock faces that do use IV - Its the choice of the clockmaker.
10:55 Fri 04th Apr 2003
Avatar Image xyzzyplugh
just to agree with pinotage; a question of balance. :-)
15:29 Fri 04th Apr 2003
Avatar Image Domnal
It was in case you confused IV with VI if you looked at the dial quickly. Comes from the old Sun Dial days.
00:36 Sat 05th Apr 2003
Avatar Image Squirrel
Similarly, I always wondered why the number eight was written as "VIII". It seemed like "IIX" would have been neater, but as Domnai said, it's probably just in case you get them muddled up.
22:22 Sun 06th Apr 2003

1 to 4 of 4rss feed

Do you know the answer?

Clock faces

Answer Question >>