Editing Reading a clock (section)

==<span class="mw-headline" id="Description_of_mental_tasks_needed_to_overcome_the_bottleneck">Description of mental tasks needed to overcome the bottleneck</span>==

* There are two scales on an analog clock. A coarse one counting the hours from 1 to 12 in steps of 30° and a finer one counting minutes and seconds from 0 to 59 in steps of 6°.
* If there is a fast moving hand, ignore this one for the time being, although it typically catches one's attention first.
* To determine the hour, locate the hour hand. This is usually the shortest hand. Read the position of this hand on the scale from 1 to 12. If the hand is between two such positions take the smaller value.
* To determine the minutes, locate the minute hand. This is usually the larger hand. Read the position of this hand on the scale from 0 to 59.
* While the lengths of the hand usually allows to locate hour and minute hand, the length of the hands is neither a necessary nor a sufficient conidition. Actually there is a necessary relation between the angle of the two hands: The fractional part by which the minute hand is located between two adjacent hour markers is determined by the position of the minute hand. For instance, at 5:00 the hour hand is exactly at 5, at 5:15 it moved a quarter of the disctance to 6, while at 5:30 it is exactly between 5 and 6.<ref name=":0" /> 
* If there is a fast moving hand, it indicates the seconds analogously to the minute hand.