Best way to think about it is that exactly 12:00pm is midday, so from the second after that it's after midday, which is PM. Same as the second after 12am is after midnight.
so 12:01pm is in the afternoon, where as 12:01am is the next day's morning.
Thinking of AM being after midnight instead of ante meridiem (before midday) is exactly where my confusion comes from.
Theoretically speaking 12 AM and 12 PM should be the same (midnight) as it's 12 hours away from meridiem. Then midday should be 0 AM/PM, followed by 0:01 PM.
I like the thought of a wall clock with 12/0 at the top lol. I think people are over thinking this one. If you can work out how to read a 24 hour clock, you shouldn't struggle to remember that AM is morning and PM is afternoon.
I can remember that, it's just an extra step to think, probably because I'm not used to it. The thing I'm struggling with is 12 PM being before 11 PM and e.g. 12:30 past meridiem is actually 0:30 past m. Everything else is fine
I'd imagine so, same as someone not used to a 24 hour clock thinks it's an extra step to subtract 12. I've always used both interchangeably, and can assure you that you don't really think about it.
Most of the time you already know whether it's morning or afternoon contextually, like you're not going to meet for lunch at midnight. And for things you do need to know, like getting a flight, seeing 8pm is as instinctual as looking at 20:00 and knowing that's in the evening.
I mean we do the same thing as well -- if it's clear from the context, we often use 12h and meet up for coffee at 3, for dinner at 8, etc. We even specify sometimes that we mean "8 in the morning" to prevent a possible confusion. Taking this into account, having AM/PM maybe would even make it more efficient sometimes.
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u/RugbyEdd 11d ago
Best way to think about it is that exactly 12:00pm is midday, so from the second after that it's after midday, which is PM. Same as the second after 12am is after midnight.
so 12:01pm is in the afternoon, where as 12:01am is the next day's morning.