Comment on I hear phrases like "half-past", "quarter til", and "quarter after" way less often since digital clocks have became more commonplace.

• NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It is a one syllable difference, at most. Fif-teen versus Quar-ter-Past. Or Thir-ty versus Half-past. And for-ty-five versus quar-ter-till.

  But it is also about precision. If I say “Let’s meet up at 4:45” that implies a lot more specificity than “let’s meet at quarter to five”. The firmer is an exact time people should meet at and the latter is “around that time”.

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeopkvAP-ag goes into the difference between analog and digital time and what that means with thought processes. But a lot of it boils down to thinking in terms of “parts of a whole” versus “specific times”.

  source

  • joel_feila@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’m curious why it got the name digital time.

    source

    • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Because it is expressed as digits (numbers)

      source
  • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    it’s not like people generally pronounce it fully anyways, it’ll come out as “qua’tr” or “quartah” depending on dialect

    source

    • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      All of which is still two syllables?

      source
• rockerface@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The most inefficient part of human brain is having to consciously process things. So going with whatever patterns you’re used to is always going to be faster

  source