On Aug 22, 2005, at 3:49 AM, Alberto Monteiro wrote:
AM/PM is another weird way to express time. Why does 12 PM follow 11 AM? It makes no sense.
Well, of course, meridian = middle, ad = before and post: after, so "ad meridian" means before the middle and "post meridian" after the middle. Of the day, presumably. 12 PM (exactly 12:00:00 -- you know, the time that is flashing on your VCR) is neither AM nor PM -- it is M. Then again, the "meridian" is supposed to be the middle of the day, but noon is not the middle of the day for most latitudes for most of the year. The times we refer to as 12PM begin an instant after M. What's wrong with our system is that midnight and noon are referred to as 12, rather than zero. And now, I must get back to my work, which, oddly enough, involves time and data calculations lately. Dave _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
