More time in bed?

[Serial_Apologist]

If you were to say, "Come round for a cup of tea at fifteen hundred hours," it would sound horribly officious.

Not if your invitee customarily took afternoon tea at sixteen hundred hours but you suspected she had forgotten to put her clock on an hour!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I entirely agree 12.00 is meridiem so how can it be ante- or post- ?

Logically, 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. are both 12 midnight.

[LMcD]

Aren't people spending more time in bed, or at least not bothering to get dressed, these days anyway?

I'm getting up later and therefore having breakfast later. Before I know it, it's 10.00 a.m. and time for a walk.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

On the general point, it’s just another example of how weak the BBC announcers have become.

But it isn’t just the Beebe who refer to BST as “daylight saving time”. It doesn’t save a single second of daylight.

[Oakapple]

A recent crossword clue was: Time of love, love? Love, love! (8)



Answer: MIDNIGHT (00:00)

[LMcD]

For me:
12.00 a.m. = midnight, as it's followed by 1.00 a.m., 2.00 a.m. etc
12.00 p.m. = noon, as it's followed by 1.00 p.m., 2.00 p.m. etc.
Having said that, I agree that we should adopt the 24-hour clock so as to avoid confusion.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

For me:
12.00 a.m. = midnight, as it's followed by 1.00 a.m., 2.00 a.m. etc
12.00 p.m. = noon, as it's followed by 1.00 p.m., 2.00 p.m. etc.
Having said that, I agree that we should adopt the 24-hour clock so as to avoid confusion.

That would indeed avoid confusion, though so does calling midday ‘12 noon’ and midnight 12 midnight.
But even the 24 hour clock has its confusables. Do you call 12 midnight ‘0000’? or ‘2400’? Railway timetables usually skirt the issue by calling it 2359 and then let the train leave a minute late.

[Bryn]

For me:
12.00 a.m. = midnight, as it's followed by 1.00 a.m., 2.00 a.m. etc
12.00 p.m. = noon, as it's followed by 1.00 p.m., 2.00 p.m. etc.
Having said that, I agree that we should adopt the 24-hour clock so as to avoid confusion.

Ah, so 1 and 2 are greater than 12, are they?

[LMcD]

Ah, so 1 and 2 are greater than 12, are they?

I don't really understand the question, but that could be because my degree is in modern languages.

[Dave2002]

Ah, so 1 and 2 are greater than 12, are they?

Depends how you define greater. Also on the sets.

[Bryn]

Depends how you define greater. Also on the sets.

Meridiem is midday. Therefore post meridiem indicates after midday and ante meridiem indicate before midday. The way 12 pm an 12 am tend to be used in practice goes against the very meaning of post and ante.

[Dave2002]

So "greater" is a binary relation defined over a set of ??? A-Y, 1-24, 1-10,000, integers, reals, complex!

[Bryn]

So "greater" is a binary operation defined over a set of ??? A-Y, 1-24, 1-10,000, integers, reals, complex!

When it comes to recording time, we are dealing with simple cardinals from 1 to 12 or 1 to 24, with Meridiem being covered by 12 in either system. In the 12 hour system, it becomes necessary to introduce some way of indicating whether, by 12, one is referring to midday or midnight. To refer to midday as being after midday makes no sense, as does referring to it as before midday. If using the 12-hour system, a.m. and p.m. simply do not make sense when dealing with noon and midnight themselves. "12 noon" and "12 midnight" resolve this anomaly.

[Dave2002]

When it comes to recording time, we are dealing with simple cardinals from 1 to 12 or 1 to 24, with Meridiem being covered by 12 in either system. In the 12 hour system, it becomes necessary to introduce some way of indicating whether, by 12, one is referring to midday or midnight. To refer to midday as being after midday makes no sense, as does referring to it as before midday. If using the 12-hour system, a.m. and p.m. simply do not make sense when dealing with noon and midnight themselves. "12 noon" and "12 midnight" resolve this anomaly.

This is what’s called winding the clock up!

“Greater” is just a word - might as well be “blob”. It means whatever one wants it to mean. Conventional terms for time relations include before, after, later, sooner etc.

[cloughie]

‘Someone put a sausage on my clock’

‘What time was it?’

‘Summat to eight’.