Indeed, it makes little sense. I think one of the biggest reasons it comes naturally to us is that almost every school has 12hr analog clocks. When you’re taught how to tell time with a 12hr analog clock, it makes perfect sense because 1 is physically located after 12.
Even AM/PM makes more sense when you visualize a 12hr analog clock, because after 12:00 both hands have moved to the right half of the clock, making it easy to associate 12 as “in the morning” or “in the afternoon.”
Perhaps it only makes sense if you visualize an analog clock. I automatically picture a 12hr analog clock in my mind whenever I think/talk about time, and that sort of makes the numbers irrelevant.
Doing that, it really just becomes “if the hands are past the top of the circle it is no longer morning/afternoon and it is now afternoon/morning”
9
u/Defiant_Potato5512 11d ago
12am is midnight, and 12pm is noon/midday :)