To avoid confusion with 6 a.m.Īs a refresher, here’s another quick look at the 24-hour clock conversions: A little more tricky, especially if I’m telling someone where I’m going. Alternatively, with a 12-hour clock, I have to think… Ok, it’s 4 hours until noon and then another 6 hours puts me at 6 p.m. and I’m notified that an important event will occur in 10 hours. With a 24 hour clock, I simply add 10, putting the event at 1800. One of the reasons I’m convinced that a 24-hour clock is superior is shown in this example. Hypothetically, say the current time is 8 a.m. As you can see with a 24-hour clock, there’s no reason to use the AM/PM designation, the time is simply the time. The addition method works, as does subtraction if you’re given the military time and you want to find the “civilian” time. The hours deal is stuck onto the back end when the time is spoken and in my opinion just helps to reinforce that 1600 is a time value and not the number 1,600. Meaning that by adding 12 to 1, you get 13. As you can see, the “1” is both “1” and “13”. With 24-hour clocks, the “p.m.” hours are typically marked as a sub-number like the clock photo above. The way I learned though, was through basic arithmetic.Ī typical clock has 12 hours, with demarcations for hourly increments. If I’m told 1500, I just know that’s 3 p.m., no conversion necessary. My method for telling military time is actually the older method I used, I’ve been using it for so long that I just know what the hour is when I hear it. When I finally got into the Navy, it wasn’t something I had to get used to, as my watch had been set to it for years. I was fortunate to have taught myself military time from a young age and remember just wanting to learn it because that’s how the military did things and I’d wanted to join from a young age. or 6 p.m.! Telling Military Timeįor starters, I’d like to mention that most European countries don’t refer to a 24-hour clock as military time, it’s just “the time.” Here in the United States the standard is a 12-hour clock, so it’s effectively been called military time due it being a standard there.
It can certainly mean a big difference when you’re talking about calling someone at 6 a.m. Not only do you potentially have to often contend with different time zones, but there’s that pesky AM/PM business that can often be left off in conversation or emails. What I mean by that is that there can be a lot of confusion with time. Not only will it save you a lot of headaches when you set your phone alarm when half asleep, but the sooner the rest of society converts over, the sooner we can all stop screwing up time. While we’re discussing military time and getting into its intricacies, I’d also like to make the case today for converting your watch, smartphone and any other device capable, over to military time. Once practiced, just like anything, it becomes second nature and the mental conversion in your head becomes easier. Military time, or a 24-hour clock can take some getting used to, but is no harder to learn that a 12-hour clock.
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