So earlier today I was trying to figure out what time it was exactly 19 hours ago. I needed to know for a project deadline, and my brain just couldn’t do the math quickly.
Starting with the basics
First thing I did was look at the clock on my computer. It said 3:28 PM. Okay, that’s my starting point. I knew I had to subtract 19 hours from this time.
My initial thought was to just count backwards on my fingers, but that got messy real fast. I kept losing track. So I grabbed a notepad and a pen. Old school, but it works.
Breaking it down step by step
I decided to break the 19 hours into smaller, easier chunks. I figured, let’s subtract a full day first, which is 24 hours. But 24 hours is more than 19, so that would take me back too far. That didn’t help.
Then I thought, okay, subtract 12 hours. That’s easy. 3:28 PM minus 12 hours is 3:28 AM. Simple. But I still had 7 more hours to subtract because 12 + 7 = 19.
- Step 1: 3:28 PM – 12 hours = 3:28 AM (earlier today).
- Step 2: Now I need to go back another 7 hours from 3:28 AM.
So I started from 3:28 AM. Going back one hour at a time:
- 2:28 AM
- 1:28 AM
- 12:28 AM
- 11:28 PM (the night before)
- 10:28 PM
- 9:28 PM
- 8:28 PM
And that’s 7 hours back. So putting it all together, 19 hours ago from 3:28 PM was 8:28 PM yesterday.
Double-checking my work
I’m the kind of person who always double-checks. I didn’t totally trust my counting. So I used a different method. I know there are 24 hours in a day. If I go back 19 hours, it’s like going back almost a full day.
I calculated 24 hours ago from 3:28 PM would be 3:28 PM yesterday. But I only need to go back 19 hours, which is 5 hours less than a full day. So if I add 5 hours to 3:28 PM yesterday… 4:28 PM, 5:28 PM, 6:28 PM, 7:28 PM, 8:28 PM. Bingo! Same answer. That confirmed it.
So there you have it. The exact time, 19 hours ago from 3:28 PM, was 8:28 PM on the previous day. It’s not as hard as it seems once you break it into pieces.