Submitted 6 months ago by governorkeagan@lemdro.id to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Why is it that Americans refer to 24 hour time as military time? I understand that the military uses the 24hr format but I don’t understand why the general public would refer to it like that?
It makes it seem like it’s a foreign concept where as in a lot of countries it’s the norm.
Because the average American is much more likely to bump into American military personnel than people from countries that use 24 hour time. It’s really as simple as that.
Given how they use different systems to measure almost everything than the rest of the world, I’d say I’m OK with them not using the 24h format, I’d expect them to use something like the 27 American hours, divided in 109 minutes of 31 seconds each.
You mean the 50 hour freedom clock? One hour for each state, yee-haw!
You mean freedom minutes, right??
Sorry, you’re right. And stars and stripes minutes
Just remember, civilian Americans aren’t the one who named the time system that includes “Oh Six Hundred Hours” Military Time. It was the Goddamned Military. And when the Goddamned Military fucking tells you what something is called, you fucking call it that. No questions.
So we could flip our clock displays to 24 hour time and meet at 14 o’clock, but we’d still be civilians and unworthy to use Military Time. So why bother? Working 9 to 5 is bad enough, working 9 to 17 sounds too fucking exhausting.
Wow, 9-17 really does sound like a long fucking day, whereas 9-5 sounds way shorter.
But they’re both the same and both far too much time spent at work.
0900-1700
The military have longer days than us plebs. They have twenty-four hundred hours when we get a measly twenty-four.
Unfair.
Its because in America most people’s only experience with it is when the movie says “meet here at 0700 hrs.” Really isn’t much deeper than that, we also call “ranger green” “ranger green” whether an army ranger is wearing it or not, despite it really being “just a shade of green.” Sometimes things are just called things.
If this was a case of things just being called things, it would be its own word. For example, a door is called a door because things are just called things. But military time is obviously a reference to something entirely different, that doesn’t actually have anything to do with time. So there’s more to it than just being called that.
Ah but when is a door not a door?
“Ranger Green” the hell is that?
I’m an army veteran and I’ve never heard that term. Army Green, yes, but that’s pretty rare, too.
What color even is “Ranger Green” other than OD?
Do I look like a swatch to you?
as an american i must say i HATE this as well. people ask me why i use military time and i say it's because there are 24 hours in the day so it makes much more sense to me. and that in other parts of the world they call it international time with the military having nothing to do with it.
makes me wanna scream. thank you for letting me go off.
I keep telling people metric time is where it’s at but they just look at me like I’m crazy
obviously we should all just switch to metric time lmao
Not sure if you’ve had the same experience but I had an American colleague ask me what I meant when I didn’t give the time in the 12hr format. The message was something like, “I’ve booked the meeting for 14:00”
Similar things happen to me. All of my devices are in Spanish in addition to 24hr, so anything automated is sent in Spanish to my non speaking colleagues
Let’s go out to eat, I made reservations for 7.
Are we having breakfast or dinner?
Without context, tough to tell. That’s why 24hr is superior.
Dinner, because if it’s earlier than 7 AM and you’re inviting me to an impromptu breakfast, we’re not friends anymore, and I’m going back tonsleep.
Saturday, I’m going to bed at 9. Forensic that one out.
Lunch. It’s 7 people.
Except that’s not actually an issue in practice. In a real-world conversation you would disambiguate with “Let’s get breakfast” or “Let’s get dinner” if you’re not referring to the immediate future. I honestly can’t think of a single time that I’ve been genuinely confused in this way.
Closest thing I can think of is making reservations for Brunch. Some places it’s necessary.
The context is the am/pm after
The context is not always given though.
With 24hours, that context is always given.
When it’s unclear I’ll say 7 in the evening, or 7 in the morning, 7pm, 7am. 7 at night, supper at 7, whichever one isn’t pitch dark. There are many ways to go about it.
It’s called genericide. They encounter the 24 hour measure of time primarily through the US military and its service members so all 24 hour time generally gets called military time.
Similar to why facial tissue is often Kleenex or adhesive bandages are Band-aids in the US.
Hardcore name
I was worried for all the geners.
I spent 20 years in the US military. I had to quickly learn “military time” in order to function, as we were taught 12-hr time growing up in school. I was surprised when I traveled the world and discovered that everyone else uses “military time” (read: international time) as well. I guess Americans just really wanna do their own thing.
I exclusively use military time nowadays. If someone doesn’t understand the time I stated, I’ll correct it to 12-hr time on the spot, as converting is super easy. Just count back 2 hours and drop the 10’s digit by one; e.g. 1600 = 4 PM. 2200 = 10 PM. Etc.
Ignorance is not stupidity.
Here in California, I’ve heard both “military time” and “24 hour time” used interchangeably for writing the time as “03:45” or “16:20”. That said, I’ve heard – citation needed – that proper military time does not use the colon, such as “1600”, pronounced as “sixteen hundred hours”.
As for why the public might refer to this generally as “military time”, it may just be that that’s the most common, well-known use-case in the States, outside of the sciences. I personally use 24 hour to time on all my devices, but I’ve come across many people who prefer clockfaces or AM/PM, probably out of habit.
By the book, you’re right. No colon, and if the last two digits aren’t “00” they are supposed to be pronounced individually.
4:45pm = 1645 = “Sixteen Four Five hours”.
That’s all well and good trivia, in practice it’s usually said “Sixteen forty five” because yeah ain’t nobody got time for all that.
As a fairly-new ham radio operator, I need to improve my numbers pronunciation so maybe I’ll start reading the time like that and see how other people react.
Already, I get a number of confused-then-resigned looks when saying “sixteen o’clock” haha
I’ve heard the same with regards to proper military time not having the colon.
In Switzerland it works like that too.
“Normal time” for us is 24h with colon so 18:00
While “Military time” is without colon, so 1800 and is then pronounced as achtzehnhundert (eighteen hundred).
Local or Zulu?
For the people where 24h time is normal …. Is that a more recent development it’s the ubiquity of digital clocks, or would people have also used 24h time with analog clocks, despite them not having a way to display that?
—- looking around, realizing I still hav analog clocks all over because I wanted my kids to be familiar with them. That boat sailed
I have owned multiple analog watches with a 24 hour face so it isn’t like they don’t exist they just are far from common place.
we have analog clocks because my wife has forbidden us from living in a minimalist class and chrome cube where the only decoration is neon lighting and we only wear latex body suits and sunglasses indoors 😿
You have a very cool picture of the future though
For the people where 24h time is normal …. Is that a more recent development it’s the ubiquity of digital clocks, or would people have also used 24h time with analog clocks, despite them not having a way to display that?
I’ve been born in central Europe in the 80’s before digital clocks became the norm. 24h was normal even then when writing the precise time. For example in TV schedules. When talking we normally use 12h but without adding AM or PM as it most often is obvious from the context. When it’s not then we add “in the morning” “at night”. Actually speaking time in a 24h format is very rare.
Fascinating. Here in the US it seems similar when talking, but I almost never see 24 hour time, even in writing, except in “military” or similar context. Plus I really haven’t noticed any changes in these habits during my adult lifetime
Note Zulu Time (mission time) is equal to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) everywhere in the world.
GMT observes daylight savings as it is in Greenwich England, this is not consistent between countries. UTC does not observe daylight savings.
Er, not sure if I understand you but In Greenwich we use GMT in winter and BST in summer so GMT doesn’t change.
Incorrect - GMT is a timezone which the UK (and some other countries) observe in winter. In summer, the UK observes BST.
Good explanation here: www.timeanddate.com/time/gmt-utc-time.html
All time should work this way. 24 hr time running on GMT.
If someone in Cali wakes up at 1600, the only thing they change is their clocks and calendars, once.
We do all base our time off GMT +/- whatever your timezone is.
Oh wow. That explains a lot. I always thought that when Americans said “military time”, they meant Zulu time, that is 24h time UTC.
TIL it’s just sparkling 24h local time.
Glad I’m not the only one. I also thought “military” was always UTC and “24” was local time.
Because that’s exactly how we see it. It IS a completely foreign concept. The general public does not use 24hr at all. The only time we ever hear it, is when someone in the military says it.
The average American is likely to have more interaction with American service men and women than Europeans. Most Latin immigrants I know use the 12 hour clock. While the 24 hour clock is preferred in many countries, they are not the countries that immigrate to the US in large enough numbers to influence us or expose us to the 24 hour clock like our own military does.
Wait, how would you know whether migrants use the 24 hour clock?
You're not supposed to say "we meet at fifteen thirty", you just say half past three or, in non-English languages sometimes "three in the afternoon".
You only write it as 24 hours because it saves you having to add extra letters to solve the ambiguity. When I interact with Americans I also write "three PM", it's just being polite.
You’re not supposed to say “we meet at fifteen thirty”, you just say half past three or, in non-English languages sometimes “three in the afternoon”.
Uh, why not? Absolutely you can say “half past 15 hours”, and plenty of places do.
IMHO, I don’t think that would change anything (with regards to immigrant influence).
Our country is so big and heavily populated that you’ll rarely encounter someone from a country that uses the 24 hour system. Canada uses the 12-hour clock, and I think Mexico does (but I’m not sure, in all my spanish classes they taught us to say “son las ocho y media en la noche” for 8:30 PM, instead of “veinte y media horas” as I was taught when I studied in Spain for a semester)
Most countries that use 24h time (Western Europe, ime) use both interchangeably - saying “at 18” or “at six in the evening” are both totally normal.
Quebec uses 24h, rest of Canada uses 12h.
Nobody says “veinte y media”. It’s “veinte treinta”, and everyone understands that and it’s shorter than “ocho y media de la noche”, which everyone understands as well. They’re completely interchangeable and nobody would find either strange or unusual.
It may be rare to find someone who uses it in regular conversation, but medical, logistics, IT, and military commonly used it… Everyone likely knows a few people that use it.
It is literally a foreign concept to the vast majority of them (only other countries use it widely in everyday life) and the military is one of the very few contexts in which they will experience it.
Americans are stupid when it comes to converting 24hrs "Militery time" to 1 pm, 2 pm, ext. making them all confused.
It’s just another term for it. 🤷♂️
Because over here, it’s generally only the military that uses 24-hour time.
24h
Military time chart is a common because there is class confusion on what time something starts or ends. Why is just because people that use it are usually connected to the military in some way.
NemoWuMing@lemmy.world 6 months ago
In the US, the 12-hour clock format is in widespread use, except in the military. That is why it’s called like that.
governorkeagan@lemdro.id 6 months ago
It’s interesting that it’s not as widespread amongst the public.As far as I know, the rest of the world either uses it or is able to understand it whereas I’ve had the opposite with Americans. I’m a very limited sample size though.
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Americans understand it just fine.
Just like I understand what a meter is, but in real life, I would NEVER use the meter as a unit of measurement.
Yeah, I know metric is the better system, I agree. This isn’t about that. It’s about saying something and not making the listener take a moment to convert it into how they relate to the world.
QubaXR@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Look up the “theory of American exceptionalism”. In short there is a very strong belief here that America is one of a kind and things that may work for others simply don’t apply here.
Explains why the US stocks a 12hr clock, messed up month/day/year mission, imperial measurement and a ton of other things that any foreigner will find anywhere from quirky to infuriating.
IMHO the exceptionalism theory is a b.s. lazy way of keeping things conservative and unchanged and shutting down any discussion of uncomfortable progress.
ShadowCatEXE@lemmy.world 6 months ago
It’s standard in Canada as well. I prefer 24hr personally. There were a couple times where I’ve napped in the evening, and woke up thinking I was late for work in the morning. Not fun. 24hr clock solves that. Plus it just makes more sense to me than 12hr clocks.
raptir@lemdro.id 6 months ago
I live in the US and I’ve never met someone who isn’t able to understand it. They might need to convert it in their heads to compare it with other times.
agent_flounder@lemmy.world 6 months ago
You’d think 24 hour watches would be more common than they are especially among European watches.
My kid had the hardest time reading a 12 hour clock. I think am/pm is too abstract for young kids. 24 hour makes more intuitive sense. The number resets only at the end of the day.
someguy3@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
We don’t use it in Canada, expect military or hospital records.
PlexSheep@feddit.de 6 months ago
As far as I know the Japanese use it aswell. I learned 午後 and 午前 as vocab at least. (Am and pm)
someguy3@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
We don’t use it in Canada, expect military or hospital records.
BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Adding on to that most civilians are only exposed to 24 hr time in a field that was either organizationally based off of the military such as police or emergency medicine or in fields where it’s important to have precise time keeping like hospitals