Please use Midnight and not 12pm as a time refrence

[Palenen]

Enlightening thread.

Noon has been twelve o'clock and mid-night has been twelve o'clock. "Twelve Noon?" "Twelve Mid-Night?" The remedy is to place the word 'Noon' or 'Mid-Night' next to the reference. This has been done for as long as I can remember. Assuming an oversight or heck, not even thought about. /shrug They are eastern time zone so ALWAYS assume it's during business hours which then would be NOON. Thanks! Now let's dance!

[daneyul]

Ante Meridiem = AM equals before and up to noon. Ante means literally "before". Post means literally "after".
.

Which is it? "Before and up to noon" or "Before noon"? I don't speak Latin, admittedly, but I've only ever seen Ante as "Before" and Post as "After" which does not in any way support your thesis that it's obvious, as 12:00 "PM" is neither before or after noon, is it? It IS noon. Please tell me why, of the designations AM or PM, "PM" is the obvious choice (not traditional, not learned, but intuitively obvious) to use for the exact time of noon again?

As I mentioned above, while there are of course sound reasons PM is attached to 12:00 noon, there are also logical reasons for one to assume otherwise--foremost among them is the unbroken sequence of numbers before -- 8, 9, 10, 11 -- all are AM, and one might logically think that the next in line -- 12:00, is AM as well, with the PM popping in at the rollover to 1:00. Not saying that would be good---it wouldn't, and 12:01 is obviously PM (after noon) but there is a basic intuitive logic to 12:00 AM following 11:00 AM nonetheless.

Again, the condescension on this thread regarding someone honestly stating a small point of confusion is amazing.

[siipperi]

It's 2016. If it bothers you so much and you can't do simple google of: "boston time" or google what's difference between AM and PM and do math that takes 0.5s maybe you should check your priorities and focus more on educating yourself. And this is coming from someone who's used 24h clock all my life.

[Fratonia]

Which is it? "Before and up to noon" or "Before noon"? I don't speak Latin, admittedly, but I've only ever seen Ante as "Before" and Post as "After" which does not in any way support your thesis that it's obvious, and 12:00 "PM" is neither before or after noon, is it? It IS noon. Please tell me why, of the designations AM or PM, "PM" is the obvious choice (not traditional, not learned, but intuitively obvious) to use for the exact time of noon again?

The issue is somewhat like somebody telling you that he is on holiday until 25th of July. Does that include the 25th or not? I usually assume that it includes that date but I have been mistaken from time to time.

From the terms "ante" or "post" alone nobody can tell if the 12 means noon or high noon. It's not obvious at all because neither "ante" nor "post" include anything. You may be able to tell if you already know that Americans count time from 12, 1, 2, ... but in that case you probably know as well what am and pm means in that regard. 12pm is illogical to begin with. 12 is not post meridiem. However people can figure it out easily by asking or looking it up on the web but it's funny to see how Americans assume that the rest of the world should know about their ancient systems while Americans themselves are reluctant to learn/adopt new or foreign things.

[donxavier]

FUN FACT! PM actually stands for "Post Meridiem" which means after midday, which is that case from exact noon onwards.

So... according to this expert diagram pictured in the meme below.



What time is 12pm? Most certainly High Noon.

Fun fact? You get asked to a lot of parties, don't you?

[cdq1958]

It failed because congress passed a federal mandate called the Metric Conversion Act, and NONE of the 50 states were held accountable to introduce said mandate. Some states outright refused. Thing is, it wasn't a LAW, it was a "mandate" or a "act" without any time line, without any repercussions, without any firm plan. States could just say: "whatever", and they did. Of course the Democrat who introduced the bill was accused by the Republicans of spending time on useless projects, and it was indeed mostly Republican governed states (at the time in 1975) that said: We ain't changing a thing.

The end result is this:

There are 194 countries that use the metric system.
There are 2 countries that use the English system.

And no, that 2nd country is NOT England, they officially changed over to metric in 2000.
That 2nd country is Liberia. Of course Liberia has strong ties with the United States as it was founded by free slaves in the 1820s, and was for all intends and purposes a "colony" of the US until 1847 when it declared independence.

Birma (Myan-Mar) was the 3d country that still used the English system, but is currently in the process of converting. It is said that Liberia is also making progress in converting, so that would leave the United States as the only country left in the world still using the English system of measurements.

A changeover will always take a generation. The older generation in Canada still talks miles and fahrenheit, while those who have been born in the last 50 years or so have either converted at a younger age or were born in a metric society.

Heh, well, there is a bit *more* to that story. Anyway, I *am* old enough to remember it and I *am* old enough to recall the response, especially to a Federal 'mandate', where highway signs with both greatly increased costs that the Feds didn't cover. Heck No! was the response. Metric is only good for decimals. It is a horrid system if you need to do calculations where limited precision fractions complicate things. I was taught both. Metric/ISO is great in my chem lab. In day-to-day life, not so much, especially if you need to do these *without* aids. Bases that have a large number of common divisors simply works better then.

[Hallandil]

Fun fact? You get asked to a lot of parties, don't you?

Plenty. Although I'd find it worse to be the host and not have anyone turn up, than not being invited.

[Tuco]

Plenty. Although I'd find it worse to be the host and not have anyone turn up, than not being invited.

Pro tip: if you want your guests to turn up at your 12:00 party, be sure to specify noon or midnight.

Have we come full circle yet?

[Duxx741]

Please use:

Starpeak
Moonsettle
Dewfall
Cricketquiet
Firstchirp
Dawn
First BreakFast
Toesunning
Morntea
Second Breakfast
Krumpetmawth
ThirdBreakfast
FirstLunch
Tallowblathers
Clengarden
Second Lunch
Mailredding
Third Lunch
FirstSupper
Candlewicken
Cricketsong
Second Supper
Hearthredden
Sconetasters (a.k.a. Third Supper in Tookland)
Candlesnuff
Pillowwend

Thank you.

[Sheaezra]

Midnight - the middle of the night - constantly changes depending what time of year it is. However, 3am is always the Witching Hour year round. Except on Christmas Eve.

[Marancil]

Please use:

Starpeak
Moonsettle
Dewfall
Cricketquiet
Firstchirp
Dawn
First BreakFast
Toesunning
Morntea
Second Breakfast
Krumpetmawth
ThirdBreakfast
FirstLunch
Tallowblathers
Clengarden
Second Lunch
Mailredding
Third Lunch
FirstSupper
Candlewicken
Cricketsong
Second Supper
Hearthredden
Sconetasters (a.k.a. Third Supper in Tookland)
Candlesnuff
Pillowwend

Thank you.

Although an amazing list and I would not aspire to know a lot about Hobbit Habits, but isn't "Elevensies" missing?