12 hour clocks are wrong
Jan. 10th, 2011 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sobriqueSomething I was musing on the other day, was this:
Analogue, vs. digital.
Digital is all about breaking things down into slices. A digital readout will give you numeric representation of 'something'. An analogue one, is about a more holistic view - think about the fuel gague on your car - a easy display of 'full, getting low, empty'. If it's anything like mine, there's a way to see 'estimated miles left' but ... actually it's pretty hard to see how many litres are in your tank, mostly because it's just not very relevant. (Directly, anyway)
So anyway. Time then. I have a digital watch, because I like seeing the exact numbers for what time it is.
But I also have an analogue display on my phone, because I also quite appreciate the 'ish' sense of time.
But I do have my digital watch set to 24 hour format - I'd rather work that way, than have a time that requires an 'AM/PM' qualifier.
But through it all, I remain at a loss as to why we have 12 hour 'half days'. I mean, really. Why do we do this? I think 12 hours clocks are just ... fundamentally failing. If you look at a clock - on it's own - the information is incomplete. You need to add 'AM or PM' somehow. Maybe as simply as looking out the window, or just consulting your internal sense of 'is it morning', but ... still.
I do like the divisions of time though - 24 is a good number in that regard. Divisible by 1,2,3,4,6,8,12. That's very sensible. 60 minutes, similarly, divides well. OK, you can't really divide it by 8, but all the smaller sized slices it'll work with.
Look at the number of minutes in the day, and you'll actually see something which divides up very nicely by an awful lot of numbers. 1440 has 36 factors. You can integer divide it by every number between 1 and 10.
So the numbers are good.
But why do we _always_ divide the day by two? I mean, what's the point? Surely a far more natural 'analogue' readout of a day, is 24 hours? Midnight to midnight (or mid day to mid day if you prefer). One revolution per day.
That just makes far more sense, than an arbitrary division of a 'half day'. I mean, if you think about it, what does that 12 hours represent? Dividing it into 3 might make more sense - after all, you're liable to spend about 8 hours at work, 8 hours sleeping. But I still don't really see the point of dividing by two. Or at all.
24 hours, round the clock. With or without a minute hand, as you prefer. Visualise the hour hand as 'tracking' the sun, around the earth, and the progress of the day.
So I would like to suggest, that all you people with 12 hour clocks are wrong, and in error. Be they digital, or analogue alike.
Not least because the ante meridiem, post meridiem qualifier that you're using wrong as well. 3 AM - 3 hours ante meridiem is actually 3 hours before mid day.
And has built in confusion when you're talking about noon and midnight as well. In order to be entirely correct, you can't have 12:00 PM (or AM). You can sort of cheat, and look at 12:00:00.01 PM. But still.
12PM is always ambiguous. (12 hours post meridiem? Which day are are you referring to though).
Actually, technically speaking, midnight is _both_ 12PM and 12AM, where noon is neither.
But it doesn't get used that way, either.
So ... you see? We've got 12 hour clocks all around the world, 'because it's traditional' and for no other good reason.
And to refer you to a rather fabulous Demotivator: http://www.despair.com/tradition.html
Edit: And just before you ask - that analogue display on my phone _is_ 24 hours.
It's called Terratime and it's got a 24 hour readout, that also shows sun/moon rise and set, on that 24 hour display. It's a paid-for Android app, but I think it's well worth it, and not least because the developer was responsive to my feedback asking for a choice as to whether noon was at the top or the bottom of the clock, and to be able to turn off the minute hand.
It's also considerably cheaper than a Yes Watch
I've also found that Seldec Maritime do a selection of 24 hour clocks. Particularly one that has noon on top, which is a little more unusual. http://www.seldecpublishing.co.uk/clocks/
Analogue, vs. digital.
Digital is all about breaking things down into slices. A digital readout will give you numeric representation of 'something'. An analogue one, is about a more holistic view - think about the fuel gague on your car - a easy display of 'full, getting low, empty'. If it's anything like mine, there's a way to see 'estimated miles left' but ... actually it's pretty hard to see how many litres are in your tank, mostly because it's just not very relevant. (Directly, anyway)
So anyway. Time then. I have a digital watch, because I like seeing the exact numbers for what time it is.
But I also have an analogue display on my phone, because I also quite appreciate the 'ish' sense of time.
But I do have my digital watch set to 24 hour format - I'd rather work that way, than have a time that requires an 'AM/PM' qualifier.
But through it all, I remain at a loss as to why we have 12 hour 'half days'. I mean, really. Why do we do this? I think 12 hours clocks are just ... fundamentally failing. If you look at a clock - on it's own - the information is incomplete. You need to add 'AM or PM' somehow. Maybe as simply as looking out the window, or just consulting your internal sense of 'is it morning', but ... still.
I do like the divisions of time though - 24 is a good number in that regard. Divisible by 1,2,3,4,6,8,12. That's very sensible. 60 minutes, similarly, divides well. OK, you can't really divide it by 8, but all the smaller sized slices it'll work with.
Look at the number of minutes in the day, and you'll actually see something which divides up very nicely by an awful lot of numbers. 1440 has 36 factors. You can integer divide it by every number between 1 and 10.
So the numbers are good.
But why do we _always_ divide the day by two? I mean, what's the point? Surely a far more natural 'analogue' readout of a day, is 24 hours? Midnight to midnight (or mid day to mid day if you prefer). One revolution per day.
That just makes far more sense, than an arbitrary division of a 'half day'. I mean, if you think about it, what does that 12 hours represent? Dividing it into 3 might make more sense - after all, you're liable to spend about 8 hours at work, 8 hours sleeping. But I still don't really see the point of dividing by two. Or at all.
24 hours, round the clock. With or without a minute hand, as you prefer. Visualise the hour hand as 'tracking' the sun, around the earth, and the progress of the day.
So I would like to suggest, that all you people with 12 hour clocks are wrong, and in error. Be they digital, or analogue alike.
Not least because the ante meridiem, post meridiem qualifier that you're using wrong as well. 3 AM - 3 hours ante meridiem is actually 3 hours before mid day.
And has built in confusion when you're talking about noon and midnight as well. In order to be entirely correct, you can't have 12:00 PM (or AM). You can sort of cheat, and look at 12:00:00.01 PM. But still.
12PM is always ambiguous. (12 hours post meridiem? Which day are are you referring to though).
Actually, technically speaking, midnight is _both_ 12PM and 12AM, where noon is neither.
But it doesn't get used that way, either.
So ... you see? We've got 12 hour clocks all around the world, 'because it's traditional' and for no other good reason.
And to refer you to a rather fabulous Demotivator: http://www.despair.com/tradition.html
Edit: And just before you ask - that analogue display on my phone _is_ 24 hours.
It's called Terratime and it's got a 24 hour readout, that also shows sun/moon rise and set, on that 24 hour display. It's a paid-for Android app, but I think it's well worth it, and not least because the developer was responsive to my feedback asking for a choice as to whether noon was at the top or the bottom of the clock, and to be able to turn off the minute hand.
It's also considerably cheaper than a Yes Watch
I've also found that Seldec Maritime do a selection of 24 hour clocks. Particularly one that has noon on top, which is a little more unusual. http://www.seldecpublishing.co.uk/clocks/
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Date: 2011-01-11 11:22 am (UTC)But then, the analogue readout gave a very good indicator of progress through the day, and hours of sunlight. That, to my mind, is what analogue displays are good at, rather than precision readings.
It matters less that sunrise is at 16:16 today, than I have about 5 hours of daylight left, and a half moon will be in the sky, with lunar transit just as it's getting dark. (ok, it's 40%, and lunar transit is 17:23 but still, there'll be some moonlight, if it's not cloudy).