A clock loses 5 minutes every hour. The time was correct at 8:10. What was the actual time when the clock displayed 12:01? Answer Format: ___:___
Answer: 12:22
Pardon me for raising doubts to the "correctness" of the given answer to this problem. I believe, the real (actual) time is between 12:21 & 12:22. Based on my calculations, after 4 hours, the clock had lost 20 minutes and is showing 11:50. Whereas, the real (actual) time is already 12:10. Now, between 11:50 & 12:01, the minute hand of the clock has traveled 66 degrees (two-thirds of 90 degrees plus 360/60 degrees). By ratio and proportion, this is equivalent to 0.917 minute or 55 seconds lost since the clock loses 5 minutes per hour. The real (actual) time by then is 12:21:55 (12:10 + 11 mins 55 sec.).
Now comes the debatable part. The real/actual time is almost 12:22 but not 12:22, yet. But definitely, it is already 12:21. We cannot round it off because there is still a smaller unit of time measurement than the minute, which is the second. That is why if you observe digital clocks, it doesn't show the next minute until the "59th second" has lapsed. Now, with analog clocks, it will not show exactly 12:22 until the "second hand" reaches 12 o'clock position.
An analogy is, since today is 11th Oct. '09, 12th Oct. '09 won't be coming until exactly 12:00 midnight tonight. At 11:59:55, it is not yet 12th Oct. '09, but still the 11th of Oct. '09. The same is true that 2010 in New York won't be coming until the countdown is done on 2009 New Year's Eve.
So the correct answer to the problem is 12:21, I believe. 12:22 is almost correct, but not quite. Kumbaga, pasado 12:21 na, pero menos 5 segundos pa bago mag-12:22. So, 12:21 na, pero hindi pa 12:22.
Let's see how this plays out...