“You somehow escaped its grasp; now you face a familiar choice.”

Answer: 7.5 – The hands on a clock always move at a constant rate. The hour hand must make 1/12 of a circle every hour (360^o x 1/12 = 30^o). At 3:15, the hour hand is a quarter of its way through the 30^o angle it covers in the hour. So the hour hand is 30^o x ¼ = 7.5^o past the digit 3, which is where the minute hand is.

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