I don’t strictly mix them up anymore. But the confusing part is to switch from pm to am at midnight, but still use 12 instead of 0. Which day is it then?? The same day according to “12”, but the next day according to “am”.
And so you’re going 11pm -> 12am -> 1am. That’s the part that has never made sense, and never will.
but then it would be even weirder, what you should really do is shift forward, so instead of it being 1-12, it’s 0-11, so it would be 0 at the very top, wrap around all the way to eleven, and then bump back to zero, where it would be inline with 24hr time sort of.
The other option is to standardize 24hr time off of the zero, so it actually has the 24 hour period. not 23, plus 0, which is still 24.
Yeah that’s exactly what I meant too, with replacing the 12 with a 0. Then as the clock swept past the top it would be 11:58, 11:59, 0:00, 0:01, etc.
It’s also funny that we’re talking about the “top” of an old analog clock, because with the digital clocks we all use on our devices now using 12 instead of 0 makes even LESS sense!
I believe the military-style time I mentioned is also 0-based 24 hours like you suggested. They leave out the extra punctuation and go from 0000 to 2359 iirc.
But the goofy 12 clock is probably here to stay for a long time just because people are used to it. I live in the US and am a native English speaker, so I’m used to special exceptions and unique measurement units. 😆
And I just noticed: pretty great username + post combo with this one!
it’s not zero because you don’t start at zero, you start at 12, it’s an offset. With a 24 hour system the hour 24 doesn’t actually exist, it’s 00:00-23:00 that’s it, with 12 hour clocks it’s 1-12, twice.
It’s just a shifting of where the scale starts, that’s why it confuses you, because you don’t think about it that way.
I know it’s not zero and that’s where the offset is, but my point is it ought to be zero and there shouldn’t be any offset. A scale doesn’t start at 12, numbers have a meaning.
Using zero makes far more sense not just in how am/pm is indicated, but in how we actually think about time. Nobody considers 00:45 = 12:45am as part of the previous day since it’s clearly after midnight. Using 12am is just an outdated convention established by people who counted hours only on a per-day basis and to whom the concept of a “zeroth hour” seemed irrational.
While I agree it is strange, I cannot ever seeing this be a problem. I have never meet someone that has ever had an issue understanding how a clock works. Maybe you were taught late?
I was taught reading clocks very early, in a mixed digital/analog setting, with the digital clocks using 24h format starting at 00:00, and nobody using am/pm. You should know that “12am” is not “how a clock works” universally, just one way of reading it.
I don’t strictly mix them up anymore. But the confusing part is to switch from pm to am at midnight, but still use 12 instead of 0. Which day is it then?? The same day according to “12”, but the next day according to “am”.
And so you’re going 11pm -> 12am -> 1am. That’s the part that has never made sense, and never will.
Yeah, we should have just replaced the 12 on the clock with a 0 long ago.
And that’s if we aren’t going to take the “should” to its logical conclusion and just go with 24 hour and/or military-style time.
but then it would be even weirder, what you should really do is shift forward, so instead of it being 1-12, it’s 0-11, so it would be 0 at the very top, wrap around all the way to eleven, and then bump back to zero, where it would be inline with 24hr time sort of.
The other option is to standardize 24hr time off of the zero, so it actually has the 24 hour period. not 23, plus 0, which is still 24.
Yeah that’s exactly what I meant too, with replacing the 12 with a 0. Then as the clock swept past the top it would be 11:58, 11:59, 0:00, 0:01, etc.
It’s also funny that we’re talking about the “top” of an old analog clock, because with the digital clocks we all use on our devices now using 12 instead of 0 makes even LESS sense!
I believe the military-style time I mentioned is also 0-based 24 hours like you suggested. They leave out the extra punctuation and go from 0000 to 2359 iirc.
But the goofy 12 clock is probably here to stay for a long time just because people are used to it. I live in the US and am a native English speaker, so I’m used to special exceptions and unique measurement units. 😆
And I just noticed: pretty great username + post combo with this one!
12 should be noon and 0 midnight.
Post and ante meridiem translate to after and before midday.
it’s not zero because you don’t start at zero, you start at 12, it’s an offset. With a 24 hour system the hour 24 doesn’t actually exist, it’s 00:00-23:00 that’s it, with 12 hour clocks it’s 1-12, twice.
It’s just a shifting of where the scale starts, that’s why it confuses you, because you don’t think about it that way.
I know it’s not zero and that’s where the offset is, but my point is it ought to be zero and there shouldn’t be any offset. A scale doesn’t start at 12, numbers have a meaning.
Using zero makes far more sense not just in how am/pm is indicated, but in how we actually think about time. Nobody considers 00:45 = 12:45am as part of the previous day since it’s clearly after midnight. Using 12am is just an outdated convention established by people who counted hours only on a per-day basis and to whom the concept of a “zeroth hour” seemed irrational.
While I agree it is strange, I cannot ever seeing this be a problem. I have never meet someone that has ever had an issue understanding how a clock works. Maybe you were taught late?
I was taught reading clocks very early, in a mixed digital/analog setting, with the digital clocks using 24h format starting at 00:00, and nobody using am/pm. You should know that “12am” is not “how a clock works” universally, just one way of reading it.