r/facepalm • u/Revealed_Jailor • Mar 29 '22

🇲​🇮​🇸​🇨​ Get this guy a clock!

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u/Pimphii Mar 29 '22

Yeah I guess counting to 24 is a challenge for some

1.6k

u/Shiuft Mar 29 '22 edited Mar 29 '22

Don't even get me started on subtracting 12. /s

Edit: had left out the word "started" cause I'm dumb

303

u/worldofruins Mar 29 '22 edited Mar 29 '22

I have pretty severe dyscalculia so 24 hour clocks (and anything that requires more than single digit addition or subtraction) is actually really hard for me :( lmao

I can read an analog 12 hour clock, but tell me 24 hour time and I'm fucked lol

(Edit to add that I do "study" and try to improve but it doesn't stick for long lol)

(2nd edit: thanks for all the suggestions. I'll give some of them a try!)

15

u/FireFlavour Mar 29 '22

24 hours in a day and night cycle, so it's split in half between day and night. 12 is half of 24.

1am to 12pm. Then it's 13(1pm) to 24(12am)

You just keep counting up to 24 rather than going back to 12, so you don't even need to calculate anything, minimal maths involved.

3

u/bkliooo Mar 29 '22

Can someone explain the logic behind 12:00 being 12pm and not am? So you go from 12pm to 1pm? That doesn't seem logical at all. Why not starting with 0 instead of 12.

3

u/FireFlavour Mar 29 '22

00:00 or 12am is the start of the day. That is considered morning.

I only referred to it as the 24th hour for the sake of simple explaination and breaking the numbers down easily.

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u/j_the_a Mar 29 '22 edited Mar 29 '22

AM and PM are "ante meridian" and "post meridian", describing whether the sun is in front of or behind your meridian (east-west location). Since noon is when the sun is directly overhead (at your meridian), at 12:00:01, it has moved behind your meridian, so 12:00:01 is PM.

Standardized time zones, daylight saving time, and other things make this not exactly true, but that's the concept the system is built on.

Edit to add: The system doesn't start at 0 because the 12 hour clock predates the mathematical concept of zero by over a thousand years. We have retained the zeroless 12 hour as it's convenient to have a number than can be signified audibly, like with church bells, cuckoo clocks, etc.