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Grandpa was waiting impatiently in the Waiting area of Yale Hospital in Connecticut US. It was past midnight. His second daughter was giving birth to her first child (C-section).

His son-in-law came out of OR and told him happily that he is Grandpa again with a baby boy born just now. Then he went back to the OR.

Happy Grandpa called Grandma (strict instructions!). She was very happy.

"What time?" she asked

Grandpa took a quick look at the Clock on the Waiting room wall and said:

"2:50 at night-- umm early morning November 6 2016"

After their conversation ended he quickly called her again and said:

"I am sorry. The correct time should be 1:50 dear"

After that conversation ended he looked at the wall clock again and -- you guessed it-- called her again

" I am sorry dear. It should be 1:10 AM actually"

What is going on here??

Note : Grandpa did not talk to anyone during the time he made the calls except Grandma.

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The clock is

analog

and Grandpa

Got hour and minute hands muddled up

So the clock showed

What he thought was one longer hand pointing to 10 and one between 2 and 3, which he saw as 2:50, and corrected to 1:50 because of "falling back" that night.

but a few minutes later,

He realized that the "hour" hand was really the second hand, because it was moving faster. The real hour hand had been under the minute hand, both pointing at the 2. (Now it showed 2:11 and the two hands could both be seen.) This corrected the displayed time to 2:10, 1:10 after "fall back".

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    $\begingroup$ Well dang. And here's me thinking that Oregon might have it's own timezone... $\endgroup$ – user30599 Jul 23 '18 at 12:21
  • $\begingroup$ LOL @Snow. But sometimes I feel the ORs have their own time zones too! $\endgroup$ – DrD Jul 23 '18 at 14:32
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Well, at the time of the first call,

the Daylight Savings Time ended on that day at 2 A.M., so the hospital hadn't changed the clocks back.

As for the second call,

I'm guessing that because the procedure time for a cesarean section is about as long as the difference between 1:50 and 1:10, that is the reason for the third call/correction.

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  • $\begingroup$ Remember he did not talk to anyone, just looked at the clock $\endgroup$ – DrD Jul 22 '18 at 14:08
  • $\begingroup$ I was thinking that he remembered that the C-section started 40 minutes prior, but I understand... is the first call explanation right? $\endgroup$ – Chowzen Jul 22 '18 at 14:20
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    $\begingroup$ yes indeed right on that one $\endgroup$ – DrD Jul 22 '18 at 14:44

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