Making a Clock with the New CSS sin() and cos() Trigonometry Capabilities

CSS trigonometry features are right here! Effectively, they’re if you happen to’re utilizing the newest variations of Firefox and Safari, that’s. Having this form of mathematical energy in CSS opens up a complete bunch of potentialities. On this tutorial, I believed we’d dip our toes within the water to get a really feel for a few the newer features: sin() and cos().

There are different trigonometry features within the pipeline — together with tan() — so why focus simply on sin() and cos()? They occur to be excellent for the thought I take note of, which is to put textual content alongside the sting of a circle. That’s been lined right here on CSS-Tips when Chris shared an method that makes use of a Sass mixin. That was six years in the past, so let’s give it the bleeding edge remedy.

Right here’s what I take note of. Once more, it’s solely supported in Firefox and Safari in the mean time:

So, it’s not precisely like phrases forming a round form, however we’re putting textual content characters alongside the circle to type a clock face. Right here’s some markup we will use to kick issues off:

<div class=”clock”>
<div class=”clock-face”>
<time datetime=”12:00″>12</time>
<time datetime=”1:00″>1</time>
<time datetime=”2:00″>2</time>
<time datetime=”3:00″>3</time>
<time datetime=”4:00″>4</time>
<time datetime=”5:00″>5</time>
<time datetime=”6:00″>6</time>
<time datetime=”7:00″>7</time>
<time datetime=”8:00″>8</time>
<time datetime=”9:00″>9</time>
<time datetime=”10:00″>10</time>
<time datetime=”11:00″>11</time>
</div>
</div>

Subsequent, listed here are some tremendous fundamental kinds for the .clock-face container. I made a decision to make use of the <time> tag with a datetime attribute. 

.clock {
–_ow: clamp(5rem, 60vw, 40rem);
–_w: 88cqi;
aspect-ratio: 1;
background-color: tomato;
border-radius: 50%;
container-type: inline;
show: grid;
peak: var(–_ow);
place-content: heart;
place: relative;
width var(–_ow);
}

I embellished issues a bit in there, however solely to get the fundamental form and background colour to assist us see what we’re doing. Discover how we save the width worth in a CSS variable. We’ll use that later. Not a lot to take a look at to date:

It appears like some form of fashionable artwork experiment, proper? Let’s introduce a brand new variable, –_r, to retailer the circle’s radius, which is the same as half of the circle’s width. This fashion, if the width (–_w) adjustments, the radius worth (–_r) may also replace — thanks to a different CSS math perform, calc():

.clock {
–_w: 300px;
–_r: calc(var(–_w) / 2);
/* remainder of kinds */
}

Now, a little bit of math. A circle is 360 levels. Now we have 12 labels on our clock, so need to place the numbers each 30 levels (360 / 12). In math-land, a circle begins at 3 o’clock, so midday is definitely minus 90 levels from that, which is 270 levels (360 – 90).

Let’s add one other variable, –_d, that we will use to set a diploma worth for every quantity on the clock face. We’re going to increment the values by 30 levels to finish our circle:

.clock time:nth-child(1) { –_d: 270deg; }
.clock time:nth-child(2) { –_d: 300deg; }
.clock time:nth-child(3) { –_d: 330deg; }
.clock time:nth-child(4) { –_d: 0deg; }
.clock time:nth-child(5) { –_d: 30deg; }
.clock time:nth-child(6) { –_d: 60deg; }
.clock time:nth-child(7) { –_d: 90deg; }
.clock time:nth-child(8) { –_d: 120deg; }
.clock time:nth-child(9) { –_d: 150deg; }
.clock time:nth-child(10) { –_d: 180deg; }
.clock time:nth-child(11) { –_d: 210deg; }
.clock time:nth-child(12) { –_d: 240deg; }

OK, now’s the time to get our arms soiled with the sin() and cos() features! What we need to do is use them to get the X and Y coordinates for every quantity so we will place them correctly across the clock face.

The components for the X coordinate is radius + (radius * cos(diploma)). Let’s plug that into our new –_x variable:

–_x: calc(var(–_r) + (var(–_r) * cos(var(–_d))));

The components for the Y coordinate is radius + (radius * sin(diploma)). Now we have what we have to calculate that:

–_y: calc(var(–_r) + (var(–_r) * sin(var(–_d))));

There are a number of housekeeping issues we have to do to arrange the numbers, so let’s put some fundamental styling on them to ensure they’re completely positioned and positioned with our coordinates:

.clock-face time {
–_x: calc(var(–_r) + (var(–_r) * cos(var(–_d))));
–_y: calc(var(–_r) + (var(–_r) * sin(var(–_d))));
–_sz: 12cqi;
show: grid;
peak: var(–_sz);
left: var(–_x);
place-content: heart;
place: absolute;
prime: var(–_y);
width: var(–_sz);
}

Discover –_sz, which we’ll use for the width and peak of the numbers in a second. Let’s see what we now have to date.

This positively appears extra like a clock! See how the top-left nook of every quantity is positioned on the right place across the circle? We have to “shrink” the radius when calculating the positions for every quantity. We will deduct the dimensions of a quantity (–_sz) from the dimensions of the circle (–_w), earlier than we calculate the radius:

–_r: calc((var(–_w) – var(–_sz)) / 2);

A lot better! Let’s change the colours, so it appears extra elegant:

We may cease proper right here! We achieved the purpose of putting textual content round a circle, proper? However what’s a clock with out arms to point out hours, minutes, and seconds?

Let’s use a single CSS animation for that. First, let’s add three extra parts to our markup,

<div class=”clock”>
<!– after <time>-tags –>
<span class=”arm seconds”></span>
<span class=”arm minutes”></span>
<span class=”arm hours”></span>
<span class=”arm heart”></span>
</div>

Then some widespread markup for all three arms. Once more, most of that is simply be sure that the arms are completely positioned and positioned accordingly:

.arm {
background-color: var(–_abg);
border-radius: calc(var(–_aw) * 2);
show: block;
peak: var(–_ah);
left: calc((var(–_w) – var(–_aw)) / 2);
place: absolute;
prime: calc((var(–_w) / 2) – var(–_ah));
remodel: rotate(0deg);
transform-origin: backside;
width: var(–_aw);
}

We’ll use the similar animation for all three arms:

@keyframes flip {
to {
remodel: rotate(1turn);
}
}

The one distinction is the time the person arms take to make a full flip. For the hours arm, it takes 12 hours to make a full flip. The animation-duration property solely accepts values in milliseconds and seconds. Let’s persist with seconds, which is 43,200 seconds (60 seconds * 60 minutes * 12 hours).

animation: flip 43200s infinite;

It takes 1 hour for the minutes arm to make a full flip. However we would like this to be a multi-step animation so the motion between the arms is staggered fairly than linear. We’ll want 60 steps, one for every minute:

animation: flip 3600s steps(60, finish) infinite;

The seconds arm is virtually the identical because the minutes arm, however the period is 60 seconds as an alternative of 60 minutes:

animation: flip 60s steps(60, finish) infinite;

Let’s replace the properties we created within the widespread kinds:

.seconds {
–_abg: hsl(0, 5%, 40%);
–_ah: 145px;
–_aw: 2px;
animation: flip 60s steps(60, finish) infinite;
}
.minutes {
–_abg: #333;
–_ah: 145px;
–_aw: 6px;
animation: flip 3600s steps(60, finish) infinite;
}
.hours {
–_abg: #333;
–_ah: 110px;
–_aw: 6px;
animation: flip 43200s linear infinite;
}

What if we need to begin on the present time? We want just a little little bit of JavaScript:

const time = new Date();
const hour = -3600 * (time.getHours() % 12);
const minutes = -60 * time.getMinutes();
app.fashion.setProperty(‘–_dm’, `${minutes}s`);
app.fashion.setProperty(‘–_dh’, `${(hour+minutes)}s`);

I’ve added id=”app” to the clockface and set two new customized properties on it that set a damaging animation-delay, as Mate Marschalko did when he shared a CSS-only clock. The getHours() technique of JavaScipt’s Date object is utilizing the 24-hour format, so we use the the rest operator to transform it into 12-hour format.

Within the CSS, we have to add the animation-delay as nicely:

.minutes {
animation-delay: var(–_dm, 0s);
/* different kinds */
}

.hours {
animation-delay: var(–_dh, 0s);
/* different kinds */
}

Only one other thing. Utilizing CSS @helps and the properties we’ve already created, we will present a fallback to browsers that don’t supprt sin() and cos(). (Thanks, Temani Afif!):

@helps not (left: calc(1px * cos(45deg))) {
  time {
    left: 50% !vital;
    prime: 50% !vital;
    remodel: translate(-50%,-50%) rotate(var(–_d)) translate(var(–_r)) rotate(calc(-1*var(–_d)))
  }
}

And, voilà! Our clock is completed! Right here’s the ultimate demo yet one more time. Once more, it’s solely supported in Firefox and Safari in the mean time.

What else can we do?

Simply messing round right here, however we will shortly flip our clock right into a round picture gallery by changing the <time> tags with <img> then updating the width (–_w) and radius (–_r) values:

Let’s attempt yet one more. I discussed earlier how the clock appeared type of like a contemporary artwork experiment. We will lean into that and re-create a sample I noticed on a poster (that I sadly didn’t purchase) in an artwork gallery the opposite day. As I recall, it was known as “Moon” and consisted of a bunch of dots forming a circle.

We’ll use an unordered listing this time because the circles don’t comply with a selected order. We’re not even going to place all of the listing objects within the markup. As a substitute, let’s inject them with JavaScript and add a number of controls we will use to govern the ultimate outcome.

The controls are vary inputs (<enter kind=”vary”>) which we’ll wrap in a <type> and pay attention for the enter occasion.

<type id=”controls”>
<fieldset>
<label>Variety of rings
<enter kind=”vary” min=”2″ max=”12″ worth=”10″ id=”rings” />
</label>
<label>Dots per ring
<enter kind=”vary” min=”5″ max=”12″ worth=”7″ id=”dots” />
</label>
<label>Unfold
<enter kind=”vary” min=”10″ max=”40″ worth=”40″ id=”unfold” />
</label>
</fieldset>
</type>

We’ll run this technique on “enter”, which is able to create a bunch of <li> parts with the diploma (–_d) variable we used earlier utilized to every one. We will additionally repurpose our radius variable (–_r) .

I additionally need the dots to be completely different colours. So, let’s randomize (nicely, not utterly randomized) the HSL colour worth for every listing merchandise and retailer it as a brand new CSS variable, –_bgc:

const replace = () => {
let s = “”;
for (let i = 1; i <= rings.valueAsNumber; i++) {
const r = unfold.valueAsNumber * i;
const theta = coords(dots.valueAsNumber * i);
for (let j = 0; j < theta.size; j++) {
s += `<li fashion=”–_d:${theta[j]};–_r:${r}px;–_bgc:hsl(${random(
50,
25
)},${random(90, 50)}%,${random(90, 60)}%)”></li>`;
}
}
app.innerHTML = s;
}

The random() technique picks a worth inside an outlined vary of numbers:

const random = (max, min = 0, f = true) => f ? Math.ground(Math.random() * (max – min) + min) : Math.random() * max;

And that’s it. We use JavaScript to render the markup, however as quickly because it’s rendered, we don’t really want it. The sin() and cos() features assist us place all of the dots in the appropriate spots.

Closing ideas

Putting issues round a circle is a fairly fundamental instance to reveal the powers of trigonometry features like sin() and cos(). However it’s actually cool that we’re getting fashionable CSS options that present new options for outdated workarounds I’m certain we’ll see far more attention-grabbing, complicated, and artistic use instances, particularly as browser help involves Chrome and Edge.

Making a Clock with the New CSS sin() and cos() Trigonometry Capabilities initially revealed on CSS-Tips, which is a part of the DigitalOcean household. You need to get the e-newsletter.