USA doesn't use 24 hour clock ?

[Seat0B]

And as we've got the time, is midnight the end of the day (before) or the beginning of the day (after). I always thought it was the end of the day, until a telco expired my ph plan the (midnight) before. Writing 24:00 or 00:00 would be clearer to me.

In Japan some night clubs and bars close at 2500 - that’s 1am the next day. A bit odd until you get used to it, but then it makes sense!

 

[NM]

In Japan some night clubs and bars close at 2500 - that’s 1am the next day. A bit odd until you get used to it, but then it makes sense!

I could use a few 2500 hours days at this time of the year! But no time for clubs and bars ...

 

[NM]

so is this post going to register as being made at 2359, 2400 or 2500 (for those in Australian east-coast daylight savings timezones)? I guess only time will tell

 

[mrsterryn]

Why am I feeling so chronologically challenged right now?

Oh me too !!!

 

[NM]

so is this post going to register as being made at 2359, 2400 or 2500 (for those in Australian east-coast daylight savings timezones)? I guess only time will tell

Well, its shows as 12:00 AM for me

 

[Sprucegoose]

Someone will drag that nation kicking and screaming into the new millennium one of these days…

Ya reckon??

 

[Franky]

Because am literally means before noon, and pm means after. It doesn't meaning morning and night. I'm not sure why some non-English countries use 12pm to mean midnight and 12am to mean noon particularly as many of them are a lot closer to Latin than English!

Makes a lot more sense if you swap 12 for 0, which it effectively is. English didn't use zero until around 1600.



There's definitely no such time as 2400. It's 0000.

It's an old school thing in Navy to be afraid of 0000. It's in common use in Air Force and it really grinds the Navy's gears. From my understanding it's because of antiquated computer systems that wouldn't accept 0000, it had to have a value > 0. Occasionally you'll see a Flight Plan or NOTAM using 0001 and you just know it's an oldie who filed it. Certainly no requirement to use it in modern aviation systems.

The Navy wasn't scared of 0000, it was just following hundreds of years of tradition...

 

[Franky]

There's an old saying - Air Force moves at 600KT, Navy moves at 6KT.

In all seriousness, 2359/0001 doesn't work for Air Force as things need to be precise. You can get away with fudging the numbers when things work in slow time.

However I'm fairly certain modern Navy is now using 0000.

Just checked and it's still 2359 to his knowledge...

 

[serfty]

So I had that drink and pondered 2359/0001.
If you're having an evening walk, intially very slowly where your next step is ½ the remaining time to midnight (a step at 10pm, then 11pm, then at 11:30 etc) before it gets to midnight it you would have walked to the end of the universe.
Time for bed.

Hence the origins of limits or integral calculous ...

 

[serfty]

I could use a few 2500 hours days at this time of the year! But no time for clubs and bars ...

I had one of those in Los Angeles recently on November 6th ...

 

[gaz0303]

so is this post going to register as being made at 2359, 2400 or 2500 (for those in Australian east-coast daylight savings timezones)? I guess only time will tell

1am for me

 

[NM]

1am for me

Or was that really 2500?

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

In my experience, while the 24-hour system is universal or at least a daily part of life in most countries, it's rarely used when spoken orally.

That at least holds true for the countries I've lived and worked in: Australia, Canada (both in and out of Quebec), the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa and Sweden. In each of those countries it's as if there is just an instinctive and automatic mental shift whereby people will say the time out loud as a 12-hour figure even if reading it written as a 24-hour figure. Presumably that's simply because clocks traditionally were not digital and it was simply assumed and understood when spoken live whether the current time or event being discussed was in the day or night.

In Canada, people understand the 24-hour clock without issues, but a clear preference of not just saying but also writing AM/PM definitely prevailed in both work and personal settings everywhere except Quebec.

Of the rest, I've almost never heard anyone outside very formal/transport settings refer to 16:40 out loud as "sixteen forty."

Frankly, I feel like many of my colleagues in Sydney would find me pretentious or foreign if I suggested we go to lunch at "thirteen thirty."

Similarly, in an earlier example where the bizarre Dutch approach to telling time was mentioned, I would have always heard or said 16:40 in Dutch as "ten over half five in the afternoon", or, at a train station or airport, spoken aloud over the intercom as "sixteen hours forty." But never "ten over half seventeen."

Likewise in Sweden, even the evening news would be presented as "quarter before five" but written as 16:45.

ETA: which brings me to a question: in what countries is the 24-hour system used orally as the prevailing default in daily work or personal settings?

 

[ZigZagWanderer]

In Japan some night clubs and bars close at 2500 - that’s 1am the next day. A bit odd until you get used to it, but then it makes sense!

The railways in NSW actually do use times later than 2400 in their timetable, at least when designing them. Basically any train leaving before 1159 will use the originating time as the start, and all the way to the end of the journey. So a train might arrive at 2530 on Tuesday, which is 0130 on Wednesday.

It drove me nuts when I came across this.

They also use time graphs where time on the 'x' axis goes from right to left. Drove me nuts too.

 

[ZigZagWanderer]

In my experience, while the 24-hour system is universal or at least a daily part of life in most countries, it's rarely used when spoken orally.

That at least holds true for the countries I've lived and worked in: Australia, Canada (both in and out of Quebec), the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa and Sweden. In each of those countries it's as if there is just an instinctive and automatic mental shift whereby people will say the time out loud as a 12-hour figure even if reading it written as a 24-hour figure. Presumably that's simply because clocks traditionally were not digital and it was simply assumed and understood when spoken live whether the current time or event being discussed was in the day or night.

In Canada, people understand the 24-hour clock without issues, but a clear preference of not just saying but also writing AM/PM definitely prevailed in both work and personal settings everywhere except Quebec.

Of the rest, I've almost never heard anyone outside very formal/transport settings refer to 16:40 out loud as "sixteen forty."

Frankly, I feel like many of my colleagues in Sydney would find me pretentious or foreign if I suggested we go to lunch at "thirteen thirty."

Similarly, in an earlier example where the bizarre Dutch approach to telling time was mentioned, I would have always heard or said 16:40 in Dutch as "ten over half five in the afternoon", or, at a train station or airport, spoken aloud over the intercom as "sixteen hours forty." But never "ten over half seventeen."

Likewise in Sweden, even the evening news would be presented as "quarter before five" but written as 16:45.

ETA: which brings me to a question: in what countries is the 24-hour system used orally as the prevailing default in daily work or personal settings?

In France, the 24h clock is used normally for times.

Italy gets more confusing. For normal speech, 12h clock is used. For any kind of appointment or meeting, or scheduled time, 24h clock is used.

 

[Hvr]

The railways in NSW actually do use times later than 2400 in their timetable,

So did the trams in Melbourne a million years ago. Went to 2600 hours.
No idea what they do now.

 

[dk4]

Frankly, I feel like many of my colleagues in Sydney would find me pretentious or foreign if I suggested we go to lunch at "thirteen thirty."

But, you would probably say half past one! And even that may momentarily confuse an American.

I was on a bus tour in Ireland a few years back, and when we stopped for our lunch destination, the tour guide announced that "everyone needs to be back on the bus by half past two". Much mutter between the US folk onboard ensured, until several loudly proclaimed, "she means two thirty"!

 

[Forg]

But, you would probably say half past one! And even that may momentarily confuse an American.

I was on a bus tour in Ireland a few years back, and when we stopped for our lunch destination, the tour guide announced that "everyone needs to be back on the bus by half past two". Much mutter between the US folk onboard ensured, until several loudly proclaimed, "she means two thirty"!

Some whack-a-doodle backwards locales don’t even use “fortnight”!!

 

[Captain Halliday]

Some whack-a-doodle backwards locales don’t even use “fortnight”!!

Oh this reminds me of another classic:

If today is Tuesday (which it is at the time of this post - Tuesday 15 Nov, 2022 to be specific) and we are going to meet *next Thursday* at half two, on what date, and at what time, are we meeting?

 

[justinbrett]

Oh this reminds me of another classic:

If today is Tuesday (which it is at the time of this post - Tuesday 15 Nov, 2022 to be specific) and we are going to meet *next Thursday* at half two, on what date, and at what time, are we meeting?

Oh... don't even!

Put that back in the box!