Why does this represent time?

Well, first of all, is that from somewhere specifically, or, as the filename could suggest, are you asking why gears in general represent time?

Good on you for not knowing

Just tell me what you're asking, why does WHAT represent time? Otherwise, you're probably less likely to get the actual answer.
I assume you're OP, if you aren't, tell me so things don't get more complicated than they need to be.

I'm not OP, I was just saying it's good not to recognize something from Homestuck

Homestuck.

Oh, in that case, I neither know or care, I just know how to explain gears in general being associated with time, so if that's irrelevant, I can't help you with this.

Why do 12 cardinal points represent time?

Well to understand that we need to understand the origins of timekeeping. The Mesopotamian system of counting was in base-60, which was also later used by the Egyptians (don't fucking ask, we say "the Egyptians" but they were basically around for 3000 years and they were all kinds of different things in that time). The Egyptians used mathematics not just for record keeping as the Mesopotamian city-states and kingdoms had done but for complex architectural calculations (in order to build better tombs and some other shit). They needed to understand how circles worked and what you could do with angles and forces and shit, so they determined that the circle would be split into 360 degrees.

360/15 is 24, which gives us the number of hours in the day (which is less to do with clocks and more to do with sundials, because mechanical clocks are much more recent inventions than the Egyptians we're talking about here - only about 1300 years old). This is simply convention and divides the circle into 24 equal portions because, again, the Mesopotamians if you recall counted in base-60, which is where the number of minutes in an hour actually comes from - so when we talk about arc-minutes, we're talking about 1/60 of a degree, so the number of minutes of arc in a circle is in fact 60*360 or 21600, which is why there are 360 degrees in a circle to begin with, because. Eventually, it's all just because; but it's a because that relies on base-60 counting and the need to very finely subdivide a perfect theoretical circle to do hard math to within a tolerance.

Later on, after mechanical clocks were invented, because the system of horology had become so thoroughly indispensable and unlikely to change (although decimal time proponents have been around for a few centuries now), and because clock mechanisms are hard to get right and the number of hours is divisible exactly by 2, they skimped out and just had 12-hour dials.

Because clockwork you retard

That's not the Homestuck time symbol though, the HS one is solid and has 10 spokes. That one is hollow and has 12

Attached: Time_test.png (300x299, 12K)

I'm sorry you spent so much effort typing a post that nobody will read.

LOHAC was represented with 12 spokes though. Dunno why he changed it later.

I read it though. Learning is fun, user. It gave me some things to look up.

are you ready for the 10th anniversary

I thought this was the mechanicus.