In baseball, horse racing, and most forms of skating, we are accustomed to seeing a counterclockwise movement. Is there any particular reason why clocks run "clockwise"?
Henry Fried, one of the foremost horologists in the United States, gives a simple explanation for this Imponderable. Before the advent of clocks, we used sundials. In the northern hemisphere, the shadows rotated in the direction we now call "clockwise." The clock hands were built to mimic the natural movements of the sun. If clocks had been invented in the southern hemisphere, Fried speculated, "clockwise" would be the opposite direction.
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