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[+] -6 points 10 months ago (32 children)

What's wrong with AM/PM lol. How many countries use 24h? Honesty, because I actua lly never thought about it before.

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  • [–] 24 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    It’s extremely common in Europe. I regularly get messages with “15h”, “22h”, etc, but spoken is a bit of a mixed bag, you can usually use 12 hour time and know if it’s AM/PM from context, but sometimes you need to be specific.

    Though the weirdest thing I’ve had to learn in Germany about time is, near where I live it’s common to say “one/three quarters [hour]”, instead of “quarter past/to [hour]”, so 10:15 is “one quarter 11”, and 10:45 is “three quarters 11”. It makes a little more sense when you know that “half 11” mean “half to 11”, not “half past” like is typical in English.

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    You are trolling, right? Like, majority are using 24h.

    Disclaimer: generalizations from personal experience.

    Some nations use 12h with “at the morning” or “in the evening” in casual verbal conversations. In formal conversations it’s always 24h clock. Just yesterday I was booking an appointment at reception and they proposed me 14:45, so 24h clock, even though it is obvious that place is closed at 2:45 AM. But AFAIK some don’t use 12h even in casual speech, like Germans. Maybe Germans can confirm here.

    I think it’s language thing, I never heard of “AM/PM” in language other than English. If you want to tell time in 12h clock it’s usually period of the day, like “2, at night”, “6 in the morning”, “10 in the evening”, which is much more cumbersome than just 2, 6, 22. And imagine it in writing.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    I'd say Germany is about 50:50 verbally, but also depending on use. If using the 12h clock, one wouldn't say "2:17", rather round to "quarter past 2". The other half of people would use "14:17". But also if talking about timetables or other occurrences where the rounding would be detrimental, 24h will be u.sed.

    Writing, I would say is about 90% 24h clock, because it's just faster. Here, the divide would be between digital time ("14:17") and military time ("1417").

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah man I'm trolling. I was raised using 12h and was told 24h was "military time" so obviously I assumed everyone else in the world uses 24h

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    I would be interested in knowing whether this was said with sarcasm or without. Because both are plausible!

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I think most people in the US don't travel to other countries, so they almost never see a 24h clock. Whenever, we do see 24h time, most people call it "military time", probably cuz of movies or something.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    I know it's called that way, because I've seen the same movies. But was SolidShake meaning his comment sarcastically, meaning that "There was no way for me to know that most of the world uses the normal clock" or without sarcasm, meaning "I had always assumed that most of the world uses the normal clock."

    He could really mean either one. I could probably delve into his comment history and make some kind of a psychoanalysis based on those comments? But, meh.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (18 children)

    What is the logic for distinguishing 12AM vs 12PM? Also, you have double of every element and need 2 more sillables each to distinguish.

    It's confusing and inefficient.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    Get rid of Daylight Savings Time first, then we'll talk about 24 hour time.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

    I use 24 hour time all the time in my job, I also have to use the time zone. I'm good with converting right now.

    Daylight savings.... yeah burn it to the ground and a hex on those who implemented it.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Wartime. Don't know why the hell they didn't remove it.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    TIL, I always knew it had something to do with farming but a little digging revealed that it was to allow farmers to extend their work day and to conserve fuel during WW1.

    Well it's been over 100 years since that war ended, I think we can safely remove daylight savings time now. I doubt Franz Ferdinand is going to be on any tours and I think The Kaiser is no longer a threat.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (12 children)

    Everything after midday is PM. 12:00:00.00000001 is after midday. Therefore it can only be PM.

    That's the logic I use :)

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    Historically, the style manual of the United States Government Printing Office used 12 a.m. for noon and 12 p.m. for midnight, though this was reversed in its 2008 editions.

    I also remember there were some countries that have 12 AM mean noon, but I may be mistaken as I can't find a source

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (10 children)

    You could just as well say the opposite.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (9 children)
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (8 children)

    Everything before midday is AM, etc. etc.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (7 children)

    Yeah. Which is what I said. 11:59:59.9999999 is indeed AM, jos like you said. And then comes a tiny sliver of time that is precisely at the border, but a trillionth of a picosecond after that, you're in the PM world. After the infinitely short moment that is the actual precise noon.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    Sorry, I answered without giving enough thought. You are right in your reasoning of course.

    Still, I find it confusing to have 2 completely different moments of the day represented by the same number.

    In phrases like "After 12 PM on Monday", "Before 12 AM" etc. I always need to think an extra second.

    Another example is setting automatic responder on the mail, where I need to rely on 11:59, because the date is selected before the time of day.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    Have you noticed how common it is for buses and trains to leave at 23:59? The idea is to make it clear what evening the train is really running.

    In Finnish we call noon "12 o'clock" and midnight "0 o'clock". Makes things a lot more clear.
    And the first hour of a calendar day is indeed 0:00 until 0:59:59.99.. Since there are only 24 hours in a day, there cannot be a "24:30". (Except in internal timetables of bus companies, that typically run until 30 o'clock, as it still officially counts as the same working day)

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Since there are only 24 hours in a day, there cannot be a "24:30".

    Japan has something to say about that: 30-hour day time — clock doesn't wrap if it's a continuation of a previous day

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    So does Finland:

    (Except in internal timetables of bus companies, that typically run until 30 o’clock, as it still officially counts as the same working day)

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    So you call them 2 different things. Good. Now imagine doing the same for all the other numbers in between. That is what I get by "speaking 24 hours". And it takes less sillables.

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