Angle between the hands at 4:20 — Aptitude Question
Angle between the hands at 4:20: What is the angle between the hour and minute hands at 4:20? Answer and worked solution on CodeKairo.
- Topic: Mathematical Reasoning
- Section: Logical Reasoning
- Difficulty: Medium
- Time target: 60 seconds
Question
What is the angle between the hour and minute hands at 4:20?
Options
- 0°
- 10°
- 20°
- 30°
Show the answer and the worked solution
Correct answer: B. 10°
Worked solution
- Angle = |30 × 4 − 5.5 × 20| = |120 − 110| = 10°.
- (The minute hand is at 120°; the hour hand is at 120 + 10 = 130°.)
Answer: 10°.
The idea
The formula |30H − 5.5M| covers every case. If the result exceeds 180°, subtract it from 360° to get the smaller angle.
Shortcut. At 20 minutes the minute hand points exactly at the 4, so the whole angle is the hour hand's drift past the 4: 20 × 0.5° = 10°.
Common trap. "0°" — seeing the minute hand on the 4 and assuming the hour hand is still on the 4 too, forgetting it has crept 10° towards the 5 in twenty minutes.