ZingW

Is midnight 12pm or 12am?

• MIDNIGHT is 12pm. One must recognise the difference between points in time and periods of time. Midnight is the zero point in time when we start to build up 24 one-hour periods of time to make up a new day. So midnight is the point 0am. After a period of one hour we reach the point in time called 1am, and after 12 periods of one hour we reach the point called noon. At noon the 13th one-hour period starts, ending at point 1pm. This process continues up to the point 11pm when the 24th period of one hour starts. This period ends in the middle of the night, 12 hours after noon at the point midnight or 12pm.

  Geoff Berriman, Sandal, Wakefield.

• WHEN I was in the RAF 50 years ago this problem was solved by defining it out of existence. Working on the 24-hour clock meant that there was no difficulty with midday - 1200 hours - but the Air Force could not countenance 0000 hours for midnight. We were instructed that the Air Force day began at 0001 hours and ended at 2359 hours. The two minutes between were ours to use as we liked.

  James Eedle, Black Hill, Victoria, Australia.

• WHEN I was in the RAF 50 years ago, this problem was solved by defining it out of existence. Working on the 24-hour clock meant that there was no difficulty with midday1200 hours - but the Air Force could not countenance 0000 hours for midnight. We were instructed that the Air Force day began at 0001 hours and ended at 2359 hours. The two minutes between were ours to use as we liked.

  James Eedle, Black Hill, Victoria, Australia.

• All this nonsense about using the terms 'mid-day' & 'mid-night' instead of A.M. or P.M is ridiculous. The argument that it is both ante and post midday does not hold. It is only both because you are using two days instead of the specific day you are talking about. 12am Monday is midnight Monday morning. It is A.M. (before mid-day Monday). To argue that it is also P.M (post mid-day) is irrelevant because it is only post mid-day Sunday not Monday. If you say 12am Monday there is no reason to confuse the P.M. of Sunday...this only adds to your confusion and ignorance.

  alex , Crawley UK

• As we normally count hours numerically adding 1 to the previous hour and as in a normal sequence 12 comes after 11 if it is then 11pm midnight must be 12pm and at the same time 00.00am so 1 minute past midnight is 00.01am the same applies to noon 11am being followed by 12am and at the same time being 00.00pm.

  Ian Jenks, Ampthill UK

• The disagreement about midnight stems from the fact that it is a boundary between two days. 24:00:00 Monday and 00:00:00 Tuesday are both correct and both refer to the same moment. There is no reason to prefere one over the other except a desite for standardisation. Following this, it is obvious that this same moment in time can also be called 12pm Monday (because it is 12 hours after the Monday meridian) or 12am Tuesday (because it is 12 hours before the Tuesday meridian). The very fact that both of these positions can be defended is reason to never use either. Similarly, noon is the meridian and is therefor neither am nor pm. We only call it 12 o'clock because of the number on the dial. There is no logical reason why this number cannot be replaced with a zero.

  Yet Another Geek,

• Use 12 midday or 12 midnight for clarity. In my neck of the woods the usage is actually a logical counting up 9pm to 10pm to 11pm to 12pm ie counting up 12pm is MIDNIGHT 12 am is MIDDAY Fraction of a second do count logically 12 midnight is 12pm 12.00.01 is 12.00.01am It does of course depend on YOUR particular logic. It is easy to call others morons.

  T Brophy, St Helens UK

• It is very interesting reading all these comments. We need to realize that a clock gives us a means of reading time. Time is a fluid, always changing value. It is never what the clock says it is. Noon and midnight are for a infinitely small period of time as is any number on the clock represents. An example is the only clock that is correct is the one that is stopped. It gives the correct time twice a day. A running clock is always wrong. By the time we look at a clock that tells us it is noon, it is past noon and the same at midnight. So where does that leave us? When the time reaches noon, it is PM. When the time reaches midnight, it is AM. An analogue clock does not confuse, because our brain knows what it is telling us. The digital world we live in is trying to precise and yet it is not. To try to represent time in a digital way, we must realize that noon and midnight are only words. Our digital clocks should not say 12:00 AM or PM. The need to say midnight or noon. And the same goes for the written time. As one note said, when the clock say 12:00 and you see that it is dark out or, if you have not windows, you remember it was evening the last time to checked, it must be close to midnight not noon. Some common sense needs to be used somewhere in here. I personally will not wear the digital watch, because it gives me the false feeling that it is exact. I have never worn a watch that gives me the exact time.

  Bob Simons, Cameron, USA