You don’t need the am or pm 90% of the time because obviously a lunch date is happening sometime around noon, not midnight. A lunar eclipse or meteor shower isn’t visible while the sun is up, or a midnight snack isn’t happening in the middle of the day. Obviously if you are talking trains and flights, you need AM and PM. But people who are used to 12 hour time don’t want to figure out when 16:00 is, so they don’t.
If you know basic addition and you know how a 12 hour clock functions, then you know how a 24 hour clock functions. If you can’t figure it out, that doesn’t make it inconvenient, it just makes you incredibly stupid.
i’m pretty sure for 90% of europe there’s been a generational shift from saying “four in the afternoon” to just saying “16”, after digital clocks started replacing analog ones.
I asked why the am/pm system is apparently more convenient and consistent than the 24h system. I didn’t ask about 24h in a day and 60min in an hour.
You need 2 numbers and 2 letters to accurately specify time in the 12h clock instead of just 2 numbers. Seems convenient to me.
You don’t need the am or pm 90% of the time because obviously a lunch date is happening sometime around noon, not midnight. A lunar eclipse or meteor shower isn’t visible while the sun is up, or a midnight snack isn’t happening in the middle of the day. Obviously if you are talking trains and flights, you need AM and PM. But people who are used to 12 hour time don’t want to figure out when 16:00 is, so they don’t.
If you know basic addition and you know how a 12 hour clock functions, then you know how a 24 hour clock functions. If you can’t figure it out, that doesn’t make it inconvenient, it just makes you incredibly stupid.
Fun fact: Many countries use both systems actually.
For speaking, it’s quicker to say something like: “The party starts at 8” instead of “The party starts at 20 o’clock”.
For writing though, you would never use the 12 hour system.
i’m pretty sure for 90% of europe there’s been a generational shift from saying “four in the afternoon” to just saying “16”, after digital clocks started replacing analog ones.
To some extent, though I still often hear people using the 12 hour system.
Just yesterday I’ve heard someone complain about their night shift which starts at 6.
Especially because in German you can’t say “half 17” for 16:30, only “half 5”. You save two whole syllables with this way over “sixteen thirty”!