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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?

#101
post #47
post #33

I always look it up on Google. I regularly run into this kind of problem when looking at log files which use AM/PM time. Related question: How do you even say "14:00" in English? In school I learned that you say o'clock but I never heard that in real life.

"Fourteen hundred" Fourteen o'clock works too but is less natural.

Indeed, “o’clock” is what you say when you look at a clock face!

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

#103

I'd be triped up too... to me it makes no sense that it goes 11AM, 12PM, 1PM. That it keeps the number sequence, switches the AM/PM, and then an hour later wraps the number sequence is just odd.

It comes from analog clocks and how you read them. They only have 12 hours, so 11:59 ticks over to 12:00.

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

#104

Do Europeans just not have analog clocks or watches anymore?

I also found the "European" remark a bit weird. I'm American so I don't really know, do Europeans generally ignore how AM/PM works? IIRC the Romans created the system, so I'd find it really weird if it had dissapeared from common usage around there. Also, every single picture I've found of a clock tower from Europe seems to follow a 12-hour convention.

Even when it's midnight and the clock hands point to 12, it's just 0:00 in our heads. Of course when thinking an talking about time, sometimes the numbers 13 to 23 are replaced with their 1 to 11 counterparts and if it's ambiguous, a "in the morning", "in the afternoon", "in the evening" is added. But there's a clear distinction between "0" and "12". When someone says "12 o'clock", it's always 12 noon and never 12 midnight, since that would be "0 o'clock".

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

#105
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a misalignment between the sequential numbers (begin at 1:00; end at 12:59) and AM/PM (begin at 12:00; end at 11:59). A 24-hour clock fixes this, but if we insist on a 12-hour clock we could still align these two spans by renumbering the "12" hours as "0" hours. Then we would see 11:59 AM -> 0:00 PM -> 0:01 PM.

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.

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

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I already used 24 hour time and ISO8601 date formats when I lived in Canada (up until 12 years ago). It's like using metric. Just use it.

If you can convince my government and my CEO, I'm game!

I'm propagating the ISO date format with Guerilla tactics. Whenever I come across meeting minutes or documentation pages using a different date format, I silently reformat into ISO date format and then it just catches on. The "normative force of the factual" can be strong.

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

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google searched "why shouldn't I use retarded as an insult" and came up with this result: https://www.verywellfamily.com/what-is-the-r-word-3105651

Quoted post unavailable.

No post body was provided.

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

#110
post #33

I always look it up on Google. I regularly run into this kind of problem when looking at log files which use AM/PM time. Related question: How do you even say "14:00" in English? In school I learned that you say o'clock but I never heard that in real life.

Over 12, you generally pronounce it as military time. So you would say "14 hundred hours" I think.

> you generally pronounce it as military time

WTF is 'military time'?

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