19 replies to this topic

[*Anastasia]

Canadians, at least those of us inclined towards the English language, commonly use the 12-hour clock, in line with our cultural overlords to the south. It's the method of time-telling which I learned growing up, but it never made much sense to me. Dividing the day into two halves, and not even two equal halves when one considers the actual hours most people are awake, seemed, and seems, to me a recipe for great confusion. However, that confusion itself is dwarfed by the ridiculous notion of starting these halves at 12, only to move therefrom to 1. The twelfth hour post meridian should be, well, the twelfth hour thus, not the noughth hour as it actually is.

For all of these reasons, since my very first digital watch introduced me to 24-hour time, it's become my standard, as much as is possible. Any clock that will let me set it to a 24-hour format gets set to such. Those that annoyingly do not give me that option largely get ignored.

[Scipio Africanus]

IRC is basically the only time I use the 24 hour time system.

[TheMarshal]

As a European, I generally use the 24 hour format.

[Redezra]

I switched to 24 hour time because I'm crazy.

[Shokkou]

Yeah, but then you have the same problem when 23:59 rolls over into 00:00. The only way to avoid this problem entirely is to measure time in a way that is non-cyclical. This is why I simply refer to it by the number of hours it has been since the birth of Christ. What time is it right now? It's 17,667,267.716. My method is clearly superior.

[*Anastasia]

Yeah, but then you have the same problem when 23:59 rolls over into 00:00. The only way to avoid this problem entirely is to measure time in a way that is non-cyclical. This is why I simply refer to it by the number of hours it has been since the birth of Christ. What time is it right now? It's 17,667,267.716. My method is clearly superior.

What problem are you even referring to? I don't have a problem with time resetting to a smaller number, what I have a problem with is that number not resetting to a smaller number when nothing else changes to indicate that change is happening. 12 hour clocks should either be measured from 0 AM to 11 AM and 0 PM to 11 PM (preferably), or else 1 AM to 12 AM and 1 PM to 12 PM. Or perhaps more usefully, taking a cue from the date format, 11 AM to 0 AM (in reverse, so that the eleventh hour before midday is actually such, just like dates BC/E are measured in reverse).

[Shokkou]

Yeah, but that's silly. You can't reset time because as a great philosopher once said "Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin into the future"

[Redezra]

And past zero, as it would seem.

 

 

... I don't see why zero is a problem?

Edited by Redezra, 07 June 2016 - 03:21 AM.

[*Anastasia]

And past zero, as it would seem.
 
 
... I don't see why zero is a problem?

It's not. Shokkou's being a little shit, as usual. 

[Redezra]

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh okay

[Shokkou]

I'm still getting you back for all the times you argued with me over the pronunciation of "gif" only to find out you pronounce it the right way anyway.

[*Anastasia]

I'm still getting you back for all the times you argued with me over the pronunciation of "gif" only to find out you pronounce it the right way anyway.

There is only one way to pronounce GIF. 

[Shokkou]

[Redezra]

with a silent h?

 

As in Ghif?

[*Anastasia]

with a silent h?
 
As in Ghif?

 
 

[Redezra]

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

The thing I always found weird about the European 24-hour clock system was that even though the clock shows, for example, "17:00," they still say "five o'clock."

 

We use the 24-hour clock in medicine in order to avoid confusion.

[*Anastasia]

The thing I always found weird about the European 24-hour clock system was that even though the clock shows, for example, "17:00," they still say "five o'clock.

That's always been something I've been curious about, but couldn't ever find a source for. My main experience with the 24-hour clock outside my personal use is with French Canadian use, where they most certainly don't do that: 17 h, as they would write 17:00, is pronounced dix-sept heures.

[Redezra]

seventeen hundred.

[*Anastasia]

seventeen hundred.

 

That's how I tend to say it as well.