12 hour times or 24 hour times?

[Skaperen]

is there some easy way to tell if the user's culture/preference is to use 12 hour time expressions or 24 hour time expressions?

[Frogs Hair]

Not an operating system problem, moved to The Cafe.

[irv]

Depends on your background. If you spend any amount in the service you will like military time like 1300 hours, or if not 1:00 PM.
I was in the military back 60 years ago, and if now prefer 1:00 PM.

[lammert-nijhof]

The whole world prefers 24 hour time. All time tables are in 24 hours. Only lazy cultures still use 12 hours, inches and pounds instead of the science based SI system :)
I think the USA is one of the two hold outs world wide, that do not prefer SI.

[QIII]

is there some easy way to tell if the user's culture/preference is to use 12 hour time expressions or 24 hour time expressions?

What user?

[irv]

The whole world prefers 24 hour time. All time tables are in 24 hours. Only lazy cultures still use 12 hours, inches and pounds instead of the science based SI system :)
I think the USA is one of the two hold outs world wide, that do not prefer SI.

It's a location and age thing. If you were never taught the metric system while in school and are in a location where either is acceptable then you are more apt to go with the one you were taught.

[Skaperen]

i'm writing a little program to sleep until a specified time instead of for a specified duration. if the time is 10:00 in the morning and this program is run with "1:30" should it sleep for 3.5 hours or 15.5 hours. it would be clear if "an" or "pm" is included. but, if not, i'd like to guess better. maybe, if the language is "en_us" i can guess 12 and for anything else i can guess 24.

[uRock]

The whole world prefers 24 hour time. All time tables are in 24 hours. Only lazy cultures still use 12 hours, inches and pounds instead of the science based SI system :)
I think the USA is one of the two hold outs world wide, that do not prefer SI.

Lazy? No.

[(kyT%0)]

as a kid my 1st wrist watch was a casio with the digital lcd & that is how i discovered the 24 hour format.

since then i personally prefer the 24 hour clock but in some situations & with some people i have to specify am / pm.

[ryansenn]

From personal experience the PM and AM thing is english. In Switzerland we use 12h when spoken (so 2 oclock for the afternoon) but use 24h when writing to remove the ambiguity.

[Skaperen]

when i went to (the) hospital a while back i noticed medium sized red digital clocks about every 10m to 25m. they were in 24 hour format. in each room was an old style rotating 2 hand clock with 12 hours. all medical records are filled out in 24 hour format. i talked for a while with one nurse and he said everyone has to learn or know 24 hour time before they can work there and that the "round clocks" are for patients.

[guiverc]

Shaperen asked with "1:30" should it sleep for 3.5 hours or 15.5 hours

My guess is the 3.5 would make more sense to most users.

I personally prefer 24hr, but most aussies use 12hr with am/pm, or when not specified, it's usually taken as being the next time that occurs though circumstances will dictate, ie. 1:30 said at 10:30pm/22:30 at night would be understood as 01:30/1:30am. In most work environments you'd hear 1.30 tomorrow and it'd be assumed you mean business hours (ie. 13:30/1:30pm for most).

I don't think there is a right answer though - I suggest using throwing a coin - heads?

[mastablasta]

is there some easy way to tell if the user's culture/preference is to use 12 hour time expressions or 24 hour time expressions?

nope.

we use 24h for all official stuff. let's say in formal language, formal conversation, opening hours, meeting appointments, tv schedule...

and we use 12h format in informal conversation (among friends, colleagues...). to add to confusion we never add AM/PM or morning/afternoon when we talk in 12h. so question such as "when you say see you at 7, you mean 19:00, right?" are not uncommon.

kids need to learn analog clock.

[dennis9516]

Never had any problems with understanding in any country using 24 hours

[mastablasta]

Never had any problems with understanding in any country using 24 hours

"see you at 10, bye."

now figure it out if it's 10 am or pm. :)

[uRock]

"see you at 10, bye."

now figure it out if it's 10 am or pm. :)

It'd have to be 10am, as I am in bed by 10pm.

[twily2018]

It just depends on where you live. I actually use both here.

[Skaperen]

i live in my home so i use 24 hour time.

[Tadaen_Sylvermane]

I'm equally comfortable with both. That being said I personally prefer 24h time, makes more sense. However the family doesn't so we don't use it in the home or on any devices we own.

[cruzer001]

24 hour clock is no good. I tried it once and was still late to work.

[uRock]

24 hour clock is no good. I tried it once and was still late to work.

LMAO! My microwave and truck clocks are set ten minutes fast to help me with that problem.

I can use either time well. I did a little time in the military, so 24 hour became second nature to me. I think many of us older folks were raised to be more comfortable with the 12 hour scheme just because our schools had analog clocks. I wonder if getting schools to adopt 24 hour times in their digital clocks would be a push in the right direction.

[QIII]

16:30 == "beer thirty"

[Frogs Hair]

24 hour time was used by a long time employer for recording time spent on different jobs and I never broke the habit .

[echotech2]

30 years in the military so very used to 24hr clock. if I make an appointment and they say "3 o'clock" I ask "In the morning or afternoon?"

[Skaperen]

for me i just say "that's when i go to bed". i should ask "In the morning or afternoon?", but i like to push people's buttons a little harder. if i feel like being nice i'll ask "do you have any openings around fifteen? i don't drive very well in the dark if i'm sleepy."

[SweetDreams]

I do AM/PM because it's just how my country does the time of day. I can't be bothered to do the mental adjustments, and having it set to the US's way of displaying time is just less cumbersome to me.

[ravrak]

It's a location and age thing. If you were never taught the metric system while in school and are in a location where either is acceptable then you are more apt to go with the one you were taught.

No, no, clearly it's the result of living in a lazy culture. </sarcasm>

[Skaperen]

i remember seeing a public service announcement back when i operated the master control panel for a PBS TV station. in this PSA it showed a bunch of little things when it stated that many things still do not have the benefit of the metric system. one of the little things pictured was a clock. was someone expect us to divide the day into 10 parts or 100 parts or something like that? i don't think even Europe would do that.

[Alex_Marcus]

Living in the US, I use 12-hour AM/PM clocks almost everywhere.

The one exception is the clock I keep next to my bed! For some reason I will sometimes awaken in the middle of the night, see the clock, and misinterpret what half of the day it is. It only took a couple of instances where I got fully ready for the day in a state of panic, only to find that it was actually 02:00, before I switched to 24-hour. Now I know for certain.

Why, brain, why!?

[Skaperen]

some clocks have an AM/PM indicator. the one a friend has, has a simple LED dot that comes on for PM. i've seen a smartphone app that shows where the sun and moon are in your sky along with the time. that should be enough to clue you to go back to bed.

[uRock]

I keep the blinds open at night. They're just at the right angle for me to see stars from the bed. I don't look for a clock when I wake up. I look at the stars.

[suomalainen]

Well...... if there are really 24 hours in one day than each hour should be properly identified. Each hour of the day has a name! You wouldn't like me calling you Jack if your name was John, right?

[Skaperen]

you mean like inodes need a name or they just vanish?

[suomalainen]

That's a data specific political question which is frowned upon on this forum. I think it may even be illegal.? Not Sure? But I think it may be? This is something for others to look into not me! I ain't no Ubuntu attorney!

Nonetheless, when the clock strikes 00:00 we have ZERO hours. Then 01:00, 02:00, 03:00, 04:00, 05:00, 06:00, 07:00, 08:00, 09:00, 10:00, 11:00,12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00,16:00, 17:00, 18:00, 19:00, 20:00, 21:00, 22:00 23:00 and of course 24:00 and it starts all over again....

Have you reaslised that in the English language if you call out each hour, each one has it's own name. Quite revolutionary actually, but it is so. It would go to reason that in order to be politically correct you must call each hour by its appropriate name.

[Skaperen]

supposedly 24:00 is a rare event, if ever. if your code gets number of seconds since epoch, then maybe 24:00 never happens.

what are the 24 names?

[suomalainen]

Wikipedia has an interesting read found hetr: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/24-hour_clock

[mclark2145]

If I'm talking with my German friends, they won't hesitate to say something like, “Such-and-such is at fifteen,” and I just sort of chuckle a bit internally, but I know what the intent is and get on with life.

[Skaperen]

Wikipedia has an interesting read found hetr: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/24-hour_clock

i think i may need to make a military time <-> European time conversion table and try to memorize it.