Dave Carlson wrote:
This is something that I've wondered about. I know that someone out there
will know or at least have an opinion.
It's generally agreed that time between midnight and noon is expressed as
hh:mm:ss with the "am" suffix for "ante meridian" (yes, I'm keeping this
discussion to a 12-hour clock). Also of course that times from noon to
midnight are expressed as hh:mm:ss with the "pm" suffix for "post meridian".
Also I've heard that noon is known as meridian or "m" and that the time
12:00:00 exactly could have the "m" suffix, even if this time only exists
for a brief moment, loosely speaking.
What I'm wondering is what do we call midnight, given these conventions? The
time 00:00:00 is not really pm or am, as are 11:59:59 pm and 00:00:01 am
are. Somehow saying 12:00:00 am sounds inconsistent. Is there perhaps some
archaic suffix that was or is used to denote exact midnight, just as "m" is
used to denote exact noon?
Dave Carlson
This once sparked a long discussion when the system administrator at
work said he was going to shut down the computer system at 12 AM (or
perhaps he said PM). Anyway, whatever one of the two it was, some
thought his usage incorrect, so there were about 5 emails around on the
subject. From what I gathered there, it is not used consistantly
throughout the world by the general public, with some countries
considering noon 12am, and others 12pm.
--
David Kirkby,
G8WRB
Please check out http://www.g8wrb.org/
of if you live in Essex http://www.southminster-branch-line.org.uk/
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