am or pm

J Woody · Oct 8, 2008

Will some one tell me when is 1200am. I thought it was noon. I have had people tell me it is pm. The news came on today and they said it started at 1200pm. I thought that was midnight.

Anonymous-0 · Oct 8, 2008

12:00 A.M. is midnight.

ScottyHOMeY · Oct 8, 2008

I hear ya. My understanding has always been that a.m. is for ante-meridian (as in prior to meridian) and that p.m. is post-meridian (as in after), so that noon, being the meridian point, ought to be just "m", but I haven't really had any luck or serious responses from my congressional delegation in trying to persuade the that noon should be 12 m. Only response I did get was from a congressional aide who opined that 12 m. might be confusing to folks who might conclude that the m stood for midnight.

But then I'm the same guy who, as a kid of about four or five, stood on the sidewalk out in front of the house and wondered how I was ever gonna figure out left and right. If I faced up the street, the street was on my left and my yard was on the right. But if I turned around, things were on the opposite side, so that my left hand became my right, vice versa. All this left me then wondering which would be the correct initial orientation. It was several days before I went to my parents to help me sort out this paradox. They were very understanding and helpful, and I've been able to keep the two straight ever since.

Goose · Oct 8, 2008

12:00 PM is noon. I use a digital camera in my job as an Insurance Inspector, and the company notes the time and date the camera embeds in the photos.

I once bought a Kodak camera and found out it didn't switch from AM to PM until 1:00 PM, so any photos I took between 12:00 noon and 1:00 PM would look to the company like I took them in the middle of the night. I took that sucker back in a hurry.

Traditional Farmer · Oct 8, 2008

Really it should be Noon and Midnight,but if you're going to correctly tag it I'd say Noon would still be AM and Midnight would be PM because you start to count with the number 1 as in 1 minute after Midnight or any portion of that minute would be AM only if you start to count with 0 would it be included in AM

Rick(IA) · Oct 8, 2008

What is this AM or PM of which you speak? Midnight is 0000 hrs, noon is 1200 hrs. :wink:

James Howell · Oct 8, 2008

Now I am confused and Daylight Savings is coming up.

What happens to that hour that we lose?

Will we get it "baled out" back to us after the election?

rrlund · Oct 8, 2008

I know what you mean.I about pull my hair out when the weatherman says 12 am or 12pm. There IS NO 12am or pm,it's noon of midnight!

frankiee · Oct 8, 2008

I would think that you are right.
But
I am wrong. Or are we??
Anyway.......
I got on the net to look at this confusion and here is what I found.

From
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/noon.htm

What is Noon and Midnight?
A.M. and P.M. start immediately after Midnight and Noon (Midday) respectively.

This means that 00:00 A.M. or 00:00 P.M. (or 12:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M.) have no meaning.

Every day starts precisely at midnight and A.M. starts immediately after that point in time e.g. 00:00:01 A.M. (see also leap seconds)

To avoid confusion timetables, when scheduling around midnight, prefer to use either 23:59 or 00:01 to avoid confusion as to which day is being referred to.

It is after Noon that P.M. starts e.g. 00:00:01 PM (12:00:01)

RAB · Oct 8, 2008

Very simply 1200 is both, or neither, am and pm. By definition it is the meridian. Ante is before and post is after. Midnight is exactly the same situation, exactly 12hours before and after the meridian. It will either be 12.00 midnight or 12.00 noon.

Consider the 24 hour clock. 00:00 is midnight and is tomorrow not yesterday (or it would have been 24:00). Consider 12.01 - now that can be am or pm. 12.01 am is one minute after midnight.

About as useful as saying the Sun rises in the East. We all know that the Sun stays where it is and does not move with respect to the Earth in this instance.

RAB

RobMD · Oct 8, 2008

Get in a plane and fly "back into time" a lot, and you will be ten times as confused. Many of my relatives go by the sun instead of by clocks because their lives have been "tormented" by jet lag/advance times.

Joe (Wa) · Oct 8, 2008

I was welped & raised in PA. Everyone kept saying the sun comes up in the east. Then I moved to WA and by golly the sun comes up in the west too. So ya'll don't put too much faith in those ole wives' tales.

Joe

bc · Oct 8, 2008

Then what is 2400 hours?

Noah W · Oct 8, 2008

Hope this helps.

Time

kyplowboy · Oct 8, 2008

When my wife and I were date"n she lived in Raleigh NC for a while. Was kinda wierd going to see her fly"n out of Nashville. On the way back we would land in Nashville 10 minutes before we left.

Her parents live east of here in the Eastern time zone. It takes 3 and a half hours to get to their house but only an hour and half to get back home. Makes my head hurt.

Dave

Eric SEI · Oct 8, 2008

Traditionally the railroads had trains leave at 12:01 so that they wouldn't have to deal with that question.

Military time solves that problem, but then you have the Japanese who will list times such as 2430.

john in la · Oct 8, 2008

2400 hours is someone that does not know how to tell time.
A clock runs from 00:00 to 23:59.

Anonymous-0 · Oct 8, 2008

What the heck is your point and what difference does it make..so what. there is 12:00 am which is morning or new day, and 12:00 pm is noon and lasts until midnight. Is there really a problem dont think so, unless you get your mind all tangled up and not thinking about old tractors.

Ron in Nebr · Oct 8, 2008

Posts below bring to mind a story of an old indian(native american to be PC) feller I once heard about....he was sitting watching people get all worked up over times, think daylight savings time might have been involved in the deal...anyways, he just grunted and said "crazy white man...he thinks time is real".

Think about it....he had a point....clock time is just something made up by man....however, I do admit it'd be hard to function in this day and age without it.

Traditional Farmer · Oct 9, 2008

So I guess there was a year 0 but no year 1000?(LOL)

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