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GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Kevin Marois25-Feb-16 10:41
professionalKevin Marois25-Feb-16 10:41 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Kyle Moyer25-Feb-16 10:59
Kyle Moyer25-Feb-16 10:59 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Foothill25-Feb-16 10:01
professionalFoothill25-Feb-16 10:01 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter25-Feb-16 10:09
professionalKornfeld Eliyahu Peter25-Feb-16 10:09 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Richard MacCutchan25-Feb-16 23:27
mveRichard MacCutchan25-Feb-16 23:27 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Kyle Moyer25-Feb-16 10:55
Kyle Moyer25-Feb-16 10:55 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Stefan_Lang25-Feb-16 22:17
Stefan_Lang25-Feb-16 22:17 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Kyle Moyer26-Feb-16 8:15
Kyle Moyer26-Feb-16 8:15 
Stefan_Lang wrote:
Doesn't make sense to me: why am I supposed to assume that 12 indicates the first hour of the day? Why not call it 0:00 AM?

For consistency. Both the 24 hour clock and the 12 hour clock tell you how much time has passed since some event. So at 1:00AM, one hour has passed since the day began. If you split the day in half to make a clock easier to read, then you get 12 hours per half. So this means mid-day occurs once 12 hours have elapsed since the day began. You call that 12:00, and then start counting again. Since a 12 hour clock doesn't have a 13 on it, 13 hours past the start of the day is 1:00PM, or 1 hour past mid-day. Once you reach midnight again, you have 12 hours since mid-day, so you start over just the same. You could use 0:00AM and 0:00PM, but all natural counting systems start at 1, so zero is skipped.


Stefan_Lang wrote:
Think about it: 10 AM is the 11th hour of the morning, 11 AM is the 12th hour, so a consistent interpretation of 12 AM would be the 13th hour.

10:00AM is the beginning of the eleventh hour of the day, but 11 hours have not elapsed. The clock measures elapsed time.

Stefan_Lang wrote:
so a consistent naming scheme would call the first hour 0 AM.

I agree that it should be consistent. But since we are measuring elapsed time, it is more natural to say that 12 hours have elapsed since mid-day or mid-night, than it is to say zero hours have. Natural counting systems start at 1 for a reason; if there is zero of something, you have no reason to count it at all.

The reason that 0:00 is used for the 24 hour system is much the same as why 12:00 is used for the 12 hour system. You're still counting elapsed time since an event, but here everything is relative to start of the day. So saying 24:00 (AM) is 24 hours elapsed since yesterday make you look rather foolish. Of course 24 hours have elapsed since yesterday, one day has 24 hours!

Your diagram also over generalizes things, and makes it look like mid-day is both AM and PM. It isn't. Mid-day isn't even a time (on a clock, it has no numbers.) It's an instantaneous event that occurs once half of the time in the day has elapsed. 12 hours. This occurs in the moment between 11:59:59(.999...)AM and 12:00:00PM. So really you need a different diagram for AM/PM, and should look like this:
Time:    0:00:00 -------------------- 11:59:59 !Mid-Day! 12:00:00 ------------------- 23:59:59
AM:      |<---------------AM---------------->|
PM:                                                      |<---------------PM---------------->|

Stefan_Lang wrote:
It doesn't make sense however you try to explain it

It makes perfect sense to me. You just have to understand that the clock is measuring elapsed time, and that humans don't start naturally counting at zero.
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Stefan_Lang29-Feb-16 0:33
Stefan_Lang29-Feb-16 0:33 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Sander Rossel25-Feb-16 13:10
professionalSander Rossel25-Feb-16 13:10 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Richard MacCutchan25-Feb-16 23:28
mveRichard MacCutchan25-Feb-16 23:28 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Sander Rossel26-Feb-16 1:07
professionalSander Rossel26-Feb-16 1:07 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Richard MacCutchan26-Feb-16 1:15
mveRichard MacCutchan26-Feb-16 1:15 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Sander Rossel26-Feb-16 1:18
professionalSander Rossel26-Feb-16 1:18 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Richard MacCutchan26-Feb-16 1:32
mveRichard MacCutchan26-Feb-16 1:32 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Sander Rossel26-Feb-16 1:45
professionalSander Rossel26-Feb-16 1:45 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
Marc Clifton25-Feb-16 13:18
mvaMarc Clifton25-Feb-16 13:18 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
reimond1225-Feb-16 15:51
reimond1225-Feb-16 15:51 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
reimond1225-Feb-16 15:51
reimond1225-Feb-16 15:51 
GeneralRe: 12PM Pin
908236526-Feb-16 3:07
908236526-Feb-16 3:07 
GeneralIs this eBook on Web Security worth a read? Pin
Foothill25-Feb-16 7:25
professionalFoothill25-Feb-16 7:25 
GeneralRe: Is this eBook on Web Security worth a read? Pin
Kevin Marois25-Feb-16 7:30
professionalKevin Marois25-Feb-16 7:30 
GeneralRe: Is this eBook on Web Security worth a read? Pin
Foothill25-Feb-16 7:34
professionalFoothill25-Feb-16 7:34 
GeneralRe: Is this eBook on Web Security worth a read? Pin
Kevin Marois25-Feb-16 7:40
professionalKevin Marois25-Feb-16 7:40 
GeneralRe: Is this eBook on Web Security worth a read? Pin
raddevus25-Feb-16 7:58
mvaraddevus25-Feb-16 7:58 

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