2023-07-23

001 Proper Modular Clock

It would be funny to manufacture a clock where 12 o’clock position is labeled 0.

First of all this would be nicer since real programmers start counting at 0. However this would also make a lot of mathematical sense. Consider this, all other hours of the day are just x % 12 on the clock. i.e. at 13:00 the hour hand would point to 13 % 12 == 1.

One could argue that 0 mod 12 := 12 makes perfect sense and when looking only at positive natural number it is. However a really nice property is lost when defining it this way. i.e. x mod y = 0 iff x is divisible by y, which is the standard way of testing if a number is divisible by another when programming.