How to find the distance between clock hands - GRE Quantitative Reasoning
Card 0 of 3
A clock has two equally long hands on it, each measuring 
inches. If the minute hand is directly on 
and the hour hand is directly on 
, what is the distance between the two hands?
A clock has two equally long hands on it, each measuring
Our clock looks roughly like this:
Now, between every number on the clock, there are 
or 
degrees. Therefore, from 
to 
, there are 
degrees. To find the arc length, you use the equation:
Now, we know:
We know that 
. Therefore, we can write our equation:
Our clock looks roughly like this:
Now, between every number on the clock, there are
Now, we know:
We know that
Compare your answer with the correct one above
A clock has two equally long hands on it, each measuring 
inches and extending to the edge of the clock. If the minute hand is directly on 
and the hour hand is directly on 
, what is the length of the minor arc connecting the two hands?
A clock has two equally long hands on it, each measuring
Our clock looks roughly like this:
Now, between every number on the clock, there are 
or 
degrees. Therefore, from 
to 
there are 
of these sectors. Therefore, there are 
degrees. To find the arc length, you use the equation:
Now, we know:
We know that 
. Therefore, we can write our equation:
Our clock looks roughly like this:
Now, between every number on the clock, there are
Now, we know:
We know that
Compare your answer with the correct one above
A clock has two equally long hands on it, each measuring 
inches. If the minute hand is directly on 
and the hour hand is directly in the middle of 
and 
, what is the distance between the two hands?
A clock has two equally long hands on it, each measuring
Our clock looks roughly like this:
Now, between every number on the clock, there are 
or 
degrees. We have a little trickier math to do, however. Let's subdivide the clock into 
subsections instead. Each of these will have 
degrees. Now, between 
and 
, there are 
such subsections. Since the hour hand is directly in the middle of 
and 
, there is one more such subsection. Therefore, we have 
total subsections or 
degrees. To find the arc length, you use the equation:
Now, we know:
We know that 
. Therefore, we can write our equation:
Our clock looks roughly like this:
Now, between every number on the clock, there are
Now, we know:
We know that
Compare your answer with the correct one above