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Whoever invented the 12-hour clock never doubted that people will always know if it's day or night (piefed.zip)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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[–] 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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