12:00 am, pm, noon, midnight - was Telling TIME with Bells


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Posted by Brad Henry on August 17, 2005 at 01:44:31 from 132.181.5.153 user REGY102.

In Reply to: Telling TIME with Bells posted by Ed Kiser on August 16, 2005 at 04:47:43:

Ed,

Amongst other things you mentioned 12:00 am, pm, noon, midnight and which was which etc. Strange, but we were discussing this very topic at morning tea last week.

As a preliminary, let me point out that 'am' is 'ante meridiem' or before midday and 'pm' is 'post meridiem' or after midday.

So midday is not 'am' as it is not before itself and it is not 'pm' as it is not after itself and so 12:00 midday is neither 'am' nor 'pm' and it could actually be referred to simply as '12:00 m' but '12:00 noon' is certainly more recognisable.

Conversely 12:00 midnight is BOTH 'am' and 'pm'! How come? Well if one thinks about it, it can be appreciated that '12:00 am' on Wednesday is one minute before '12:01 am Wednesday' and '12:00 pm Wednesday' is one minute after '11:59 Wednesday'. This means of course that '12:00 pm Wednesday' is the same instant as '12:00 am Thursday'. No problem - just a bit confusing.

Of course to get around the confusion the current convention seems to be that if a plane or train or whatever is scheduled to leave at midnight then the timetable will specify 'Wed 11:59 pm' or 'Thu 12:01 am'. With a 24 hour system that would be 'Wed 23:59' or 'Thu 00:01' but then again with this sytem there is presumably no such time as 24:00 ... :-) .

Brad Henry.


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