Hmmmm, I was under the impression that 24 hour time eliminated the colon from the timekeeping, as in
0015
2245
etc.
True?
The US military standard does eliminate the colon. ISO8601 uses the colon. Other countries are free to have their own standards. And are also free to have their citizens not bother following their standards.
In addition to all the other Americans who’ve responded that they use “military” time, there are those of us who’ve worked in broadcasting and got used to filling out time logs this way.
I could have adjusted back to the a.m./p.m. system, but habit/precision/nostalgia have prevented it.
This is correct, but have you seen a 24 hour clock? I am always confusing 17:00 with 7:00 PM. I know better, but when I am trying to read a dirty bus schedule in the rain?
All emergency services use it, too.
Daylight savings ending (next week, again) was a bitch if you got a call at the wrong time. We had to enter the various times on the run report - dispatch, enroute, on-scene, to patient, transport, @ hospital, & available. The program had logic to ensure the times were sequential; therefore, it was not possible to start a call at 0155 & finish it at 0130 because the clock changed on you. :smack:
I’m surprised that LSLGuy hasn’t talked about aviation time, which is not only military time, but fixes the timezone, too.
I’ve all of my clocks (which support it) set to 24-hour time. why? just because, I guess; being used to it means I don’t have to stop and think when given a time in 24-hr notation (which does happen.)
“I rolled into my hotel at 7:30 in the morning and asked the lady at the desk for a wake-up call at 7. She said ‘Mr. White, it’s past 7!’ I said ‘No, the next one! I think ya got another one comin’ round later.”
-Ron White
I don’t like it, but it is the correct way.
Just as I have switched to YYYY/MM/DD ( = 2017-10-30 ).
As a scientist, absolutely. Time zones and daylight savings time (especially for projects involving both northern and southern hemisphere work) also screw things up, so the first thing I do with any new instrument is set the clock to 24-hour Zulu time and disable daylight savings adjustments. The second thing I do is stick a label on it promising dire consequences to anyone who changes it.
They still get changed. :smack:
That’s because you lack follow through. Just one person needs to face the consequences.
*Pour encourager les autres *has a long and storied history. Why? Because it works.
Which also means you (any you) ought not threaten consequences you can’t or won’t deliver.
True enough. “Threatening dire consequences” is overstating it - the labels just say something like “do not change the time and date settings on this instrument.” I’m generally happy to lend instruments that aren’t being used, but there are a couple of colleagues who have lost their borrowing privileges. Consequences for my own students are a little more direct, but offenses are far less frequent there.
In the U.S. the choice is between the 24-hour clock, and two 12-hour divisions. In Thailand the choice is between the 24-hour clock and four six-hour divisions. 5 am, 11 am, 5 pm, and 11 pm are named ‘tii haa’, ‘haa mong [chao]’, ‘haa mong [yen]’, ‘haa thum’ repectively — all variations of ‘haa’ (5). Note that the short forms for 11 am and 5 pm are identical.
Confusion is often avoided by giving most appointments no more specificity than ‘very morning’, ‘morning’, ‘early afternoon’, ‘late afternoon’, ‘dusk’ or ‘late.’
When I was in the Navy a story went around about a fellow who’d been tasked with setting all of the office clocks ahead an hour when DST rolled around in Florida. He did, including the the station time standard which is Zulu. It’s kind of important because the cryptologic gear stopped working until it could be put back.
I keep my digital clocks on 24-hr but the hand-clocks are not. A atomic clock digital alarm from Oregon Scientific proved useless because it insisted on switching to DST by itself at the appropriate time, making me early for work the first time it happened. There was no way to tell it we don’t do DST in Arizona and, worse, would switch back to DST each morning for about a month after the date. I do use 12-hr time when speaking to people to avoid offending the inflexible ones, like the OP.
Question: What part does northern or southern hemisphere play in what time it was?
Daylight savings time changes go the opposite way in the southern hemisphere. For example, we have a project with field sites in Chile and Nevada. In Chile, DST changes happen in May and August; in the US they happen in March and November. So we begin the year with Nevada 5 hours behind Chile. In March, Nevada clocks spring forward to get four hours behind. In May, Chilean clocks fall back to make the difference 3 hours. In August, Chile springs forward back to 4 hours. In November, the US falls back and we’re back to five hours difference.
It also happens with Australia, with the added complication that only some states change their clocks. Throw Arizona into the mix and you get a whole lot of good fun.
Amusingly enough, I’m actually in the military (Air Force), and we rarely use 24 hour time except in written/electronic communication. One area where it does come up is for any events taking place in multiple time zones. I can tell you it’s annoying having to figure out what time I’m supposed to call in to a teleconference happening in Alabama at 1PM when I happen to be in Japan.
For the record, the earliest I’ve ever had to show up for a meeting was 0430, and that was just to make sure we had the teleconference equipment working and enough coffee made for everyone before it started at 0500 our time. As I recall, the folks actually hosting the meeting were doing so at the very end of their duty day stateside.
Now if you want some real fun, ham radio uses 24 hour time, in UTC. Which is to say that if you are in Texas and having a ragchew with a gentleman in California and another fellow in London, you would all log the same time in your radio logs. No time zones, just Universal Time. As I recall, pilots use the same system for obvious reasons.
As an aside, the whole midnight ambiguity is part of the reason why I prefer folks to give midnight deadlines at 11:59PM or 2359, just sidesteps the entire issue (although yes, 0000 is always in the morning, and 2400 is always at night, hypothetically, since I’ve never ever ever seen anything expressed as happening at 2400, not even midnight).
Okay so where is the 12 and where is the 00 on your 24hr dial watch?
It seems 00 is usually at the top, but I can see arguments for both ways. I’d wear mine more often, but it’s an inexpensive and uncomfortable Raketa Dolphin. I’ve been wearing my G-Shock exclusively for years now (set to 24hr time).
We use it on our work tasks. It’s not uncommon for 1300 and 3:00 PM to get confused. Also 1500 and 5:00 PM, etc.
I suppose a better question is why the fuck did humanity adopt a double cycle of 12 in the first place instead of a single cycle of 24? All it did was create ambiguity.
That is a good question, it was probably the fault of the railroads.
Time to check Wiki.