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Ask HN: What does 12:00 AM mean?

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Re: Ask HN: What does 12:00 AM mean?

#121

Post by akvadrako »

amarshall wrote: post #31

There is no universally agreed upon definition. This is why some may use either 12:01 AM or 12:01 PM to avoid ambiguity. Or “12 noon” and “12 midnight”. Of course, the “obvious” answer is to just use 00:00 and 12:00. Lots of folks here are trying to logically determine which use is “correct”, but it doesn’t really matter much if the reader doesn’t agree and misinterprets. So the best option is to use an unambiguous a…

Although it's true there are rare exceptions, I've never met a native AM/PM user who thought 12:00 AM was noon.

Re: Ask HN: What does 12:00 AM mean?

#122

Post by mhogomchungu »

Each african here and in Swahili time, the day starts at 7:00 AM and ends at 6:59PM and night starts at 7:00 PM and ends at 6:59AM.

So, I would read "12:00 AM" as "six hours into the night" since its been 6 hours since the night has started.

I would also read "12:00 PM" as "six hours into the day" since its been six hours since the day has started. Speaking it, i would say "saa 6 mchana" and the literal translation is "time 6 noon".

I and most people here always set time in AM/PM format and i always have to first convert it to swahili time before making sense of it.

Re: Ask HN: What does 12:00 AM mean?

#124

Post by yread »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #120
rogual wrote: post #16

Imagine if 12AM meant 12 noon. What would one second past 12 noon be? It'd have to be 12:00:01 PM. Even one millisecond past 12 noon would be PM. So "12AM" could only exist for an infinitesimal length of time, in contrast to 11AM, 10AM etc. which each last for an hour.

12 AM should be replaced by 0 AM, same with 12 PM

0 is unnatural

/s

Re: Ask HN: What does 12:00 AM mean?

#125

Post by DonaldFisk »

Yes. I wish people would stop using that, as it confuses me, just as it confused you. AM = ante meridiem, before noon. PM = post meridiem, after noon. It makes no sense to say midday (meridies in Latin) is before noon or after noon, it's exactly at noon. If you're going to use a 12 hour clock, to avoid confusion, you should write "12 noon" or "12 midnight". That way the confusion is avoided. Alternatively, switch to a 24 hour clock, and if it's international use UTC. And if you can't do that, start your event a minute later: 12:01pm is unambiguously one minute after noon.

Re: Ask HN: What does 12:00 AM mean?

#126

Post by softwarebeware »

captainmuon wrote: post #48
rogual wrote: post #16

Imagine if 12AM meant 12 noon. What would one second past 12 noon be? It'd have to be 12:00:01 PM. Even one millisecond past 12 noon would be PM. So "12AM" could only exist for an infinitesimal length of time, in contrast to 11AM, 10AM etc. which each last for an hour.

I would have thought it's AM for the whole of the 12th hour. So 12:00 AM, 12:01 AM, 12:59 AM, 1:00 PM (hour one, past the hour of noon). An hour being a time span of 60 minutes, not an instant! In the "correct" usage, you have an illogical jump between 11:59 AM and 12:00 PM.

Yes this is correct. It can be 12:28am, 12:43am, 12:55am, etc. And it rolls over from 11:59am to 12:00pm.

Re: Ask HN: What does 12:00 AM mean?

#127

Post by technobabbler »

mhogomchungu wrote: post #122

Each african here and in Swahili time, the day starts at 7:00 AM and ends at 6:59PM and night starts at 7:00 PM and ends at 6:59AM. So, I would read "12:00 AM" as "six hours into the night" since its been 6 hours since the night has started. I would also read "12:00 PM" as "six hours into the day" since its been six hours since the day has started. Speaking it, i would say "saa 6 mchana" and the literal translation i…

That's really fascinating. When do businesses typically open and close? Are there set times?

Re: Ask HN: What does 12:00 AM mean?

#128

Post by mrsuprawsm »

technobabbler wrote: post #30

You have to learn other cultures' norms if you want to live or work with them. It goes both ways. Europe and America do not only time differently, but phone numbers (1-800-123-1234 in the USA, 06 86 57 90 14 in France), dates (Jan 1 1911 would be 1/1/11 in the USA, 11-1-1 elsewhere), decimals (1,000.00 or 1.000,00), units (inches vs centimeters), reading order, daylight savings time, time zones (some countries don't…

[flagged]

Re: Ask HN: What does 12:00 AM mean?

#130

Post by hnbad »

softwarebeware wrote: post #105
hnbad wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck. Americans will insist that 12 is more intutive because zeros look weird or something. If you tried to standardize on 0-based 12 hour clocks in the US it'd probably result in something weird like Texas seceding or some Christian sect claiming it's anti-Christian and trying to assassinate you.

I think most Americans would be fine with it. Hospitals, the military, and most public services like fire fighters use it already.

Contrary to popular narratives, there very rarely is a "silent majority" behind the kind of outrage I was poking fun at.

E.g. despite abortion clinics having a history of being violently attacked and often "regulated" out of existence, only roughly 20% of Americans think abortion should be flatly illegal outright and the labels "pro-life" and "pro-choice" seem to be self-applied in roughly equal proportions:

https://news.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx

Granted, abortion is a complex and sensitive topic even before you bring religious doctrines into it, but it only takes one snowflake with a gun to think changing the clocks is Satanism for someone to get hurt. I'm frankly amazed the DST change seems to have passed so easily given the kind of conspiracy theories that would lend itself to.

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