Magnus takes them, thinking for a moment before carefully drawing a circle and marking the twelve hours. "So the way these are usually made," Magnus says, "There's a big hand and a little hand. The big hand is the minute hand, and it goes around the circle once an hour. The little hand is the hour hand, and it goes around the circle twice a day."

He considers, then discards, the idea of also mentioning the second hand. That seems like a lot for a guy's first clock experience.

"So if you're looking at it, and the big hand is on the six and the little hand is on the three, that means it's 6:15, because each number represents an hour for the little hand, and five minutes for the big hand."