# Do you say 16:00 or 4:00 p.m.?



## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

24-hour clock or not?  Do tell....


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

4pm

i'm very analog.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I am also more analogue (using am and pm).


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I'm fine with either.


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

I use 24hr. time for certain work functions. We use antenna sites all over the world and we use GMT time for that in 24hr. time format.

In all other areas of my life I use am/pm time.


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## Piwikiwi (Apr 1, 2011)

My clock says 16:00 but I say 4 o'clock


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

"Military" time uses 24 hour without the colon - 1600. In the US, spoken reference would be sixteen hundred hours. The 3-digit morning times are expressed in the pattern of: oh-two-thirty hours.

Personally, I use 24 hour time when it is... useful.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I use a 12 hour clock just because it is how I was taught. I have trouble translating 1600. But then, I am very right-brained and don't understand time much anyway. Time is a contrivance.


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## Wicked_one (Aug 18, 2010)

I'm vintage, I use a sundial.


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

Hilltroll72 said:


> "Military" time uses 24 hour without the colon - 1600. In the US, spoken reference would be sixteen hundred hours. The 3-digit morning times are expressed in the pattern of: oh-two-thirty hours.


When I was in the Navy it was stressed to us in boot camp not to say "sixteen hunderd hours," just "sixteen hunderd." Not sure if that is just a Navy thing or if the usage of "hours" has been dropped.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Wicked_one said:


> I'm vintage, I use a sundial.


:tiphat: Thanks for the opportunity to quote Hilaire Belloc: 'I am a sundial & I make a botch / Of what is done much better by a watch.'

I'd normally say 4.00 pm, but if checking bus or train timetables I'm happier if it specifies 1600 hours.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

EricABQ said:


> When I was in the Navy it was stressed to us in boot camp not to say "sixteen hunderd hours," just "sixteen hunderd." Not sure if that is just a Navy thing or if the usage of "hours" has been dropped.


Makes sense, as long as the recipient of the message knows you are talking about a time of day.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

I use the AM PM system as I'm not a communist


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

I say : its about 4........


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Couchie said:


> I use the AM PM system as I'm not a communist


This, more or less


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I mostly use the 24-hour clock. I simply say, translating from German, _it's 16 o'clock_, _it's 16 48_, etc., but never _it's a quarter past 16_. _Zero o'clock_ sounds odd, though, so I usually say _midnight_.

I kind of lament the passing of _quarter past_, _five to_ and so on, often rounded to the nearest 2-3 minutes, in lieu of our contemporary digital precision.


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

I can't imagine using the 24-hour system...who wants to do all that work?


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

'[W]ho wants to do all that work?"

Work?


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

CarterJohnsonPiano said:


> I can't imagine using the 24-hour system...who wants to do all that work?


Hehe, I did it just so I could learn it after my friend said that he knew it last year.... It's not so bad. 

It's 15:07 right now, which I tend to understand better now than 3 pm. Am/pm gets confusing as well....


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## TresPicos (Mar 21, 2009)

A 60-hour system sounds nice! 

First, twelve hours of sleep. Then, a couple of hours moseying around at home, getting ready for work. Work for eight hours, with a 2-hour lunch and 2-hour nap, then some lounging at home, listening to classical music... A couple of hours of senseless posting at TC, a nice dinner, a couple of hours of TV, more classical music... Perhaps one or two hours washing dishes and stuff... After that, hanging out with friends for 4-5 hours, before returning home to relax with more classical music, a few hours with a good book, a movie, more classical music, more TC posting... Then, brushing my teeth and going to bed. Perfect!


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

brotagonist said:


> I kind of lament the passing of _quarter past_, _five to_ and so on...


Me too. In my childhood, my grandparents would say 'five and twenty past', not twenty-five past, a hangover from Victorian times; and my grandfather called Jacks from a pack of cards 'knaves'. A vanished world.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

brotagonist said:


> I mostly use the 24-hour clock. I simply say, translating from German, _it's 16 o'clock_, _it's 16 48_, etc., but never _it's a quarter past 16_. _Zero o'clock_ sounds odd, though, so I usually say _midnight_.
> 
> I kind of lament the passing of _quarter past_, _five to_ and so on, often rounded to the nearest 2-3 minutes, in lieu of our contemporary digital precision.


It's 2359 and then 0001.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Anybody ex-service,police,airline pilots,etc. use the 24 hr clock, With am /pm you can have confusion. Four o'clock is am and pm and you may have a screw up, but not with 0400 or 1600 it is quite plain.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

CarterJohnsonPiano said:


> I can't imagine using the 24-hour system...who wants to do all that work?


Come,come you just take twelve away eg 1500 minus 12 = 3pm.


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

moody said:


> Come,come you just take twelve away eg 1500 minus 12 = 3pm.


Of course I was joking...I am used to the am / pm system but if I see something in 24-hour time it only takes me a mere three seconds to convert


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

CarterJohnsonPiano said:


> Of course I was joking...I am used to the am / pm system but if I see something in 24-hour time it only takes me a mere three seconds to convert


I knew it all along of course !!


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Okay, okay.... Who doesn't tell time??


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

mstar said:


> Okay, okay.... Who doesn't tell time??


I've found it impossible to tell time anything.


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

Its time 4 lunch...:lol:


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

We all know that I just made up that 60-hour system thing, right?... Or is it actually some ancient form of telling time? I doubt it, though.  

My next thread should be "Do You Measure Years In BC/AD, or In The Xth Year of Reign of King ---?"


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

I am a advanced cybergenetic cyborg from the future so i can say both.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

mstar said:


> We all know that I just made up that 60-hour system thing, right?... Or is it actually some ancient form of telling time? I doubt it, though.
> 
> My next thread should be "Do You Measure Years In BC/AD, or In The Xth Year of Reign of King ---?"


It could be - do you use the traditional BC & AD, Before Christ & Anno Domini, or do you use the new 'neutral' terminology of the scholars, BCE & CE - Before Common Era, and Common Era.

I prefer the traditional usage, because if you change things it immediately spoils books and quotes from the past, but when I did a Scripture AS level, gosh, nearly 20 years ago now, I had to use the scholarly terms.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

mstar said:


> 24-hour clock or not?  Do tell....


Nope, I use twelve hour clock.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

When in Rome.... that's what I do.

More fun is from place to place "half four" means either 3:30 or 4:30, i.e. half _before_ or half _after_. Those are the little things one must sort out when traveling.

Grew up with the A.M. P.M., lived in Europe, where all it takes for those of us used to the 12 hours told twice system is deduct 12 from anything over twelve... simples.

The 24 hour is more logical, certainly, starting at 00:00 hours, eliminating A.M./ P.M. or twelve noon / midnight. -- but just think, if romantic Germany had been on the 24 hour clock, of all those poems and songs without their "Mitternachts."


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

It's 4 o'clock. Not actually, but that's what I'd say...


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## Jaredpi (Jul 4, 2013)

I'm fine either way, but i prefer the 12-hour clock.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

24 hour clock. I used to work as a civilian at a military operated electronics plant - the 24 hour clock was permanently etched into my brain for life. Even my mobile phone shows the 24 hour time format as does my desktop PC.


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