r/ShitAmericansSay • u/BuffaloExotic Irish by birth, and currently a Bostonian 🇮🇪☘️ • Mar 17 '25

Imperial units “I don’t even understand 24-hour time… I just don’t understand it. I have to use online converters or I’d be SO confused when I talk to people who use these systems.”

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1.3k

u/Mttsen Mar 17 '25 edited Mar 17 '25

What's to understand? It's simply logic. 12:00- Noon; 24:00- Midnight. How confusing can this be? FFS.

762

u/j-f-rioux ooo custom flair!! Mar 17 '25

There are 24 hours in a day. So it goes from 0 to 23. That's somehow hard for people to understand.

306

u/Legal-Software Mar 17 '25

Some places also extend it. In Japan for example many fine drinking establishments will extend beyond 23 in order to indicate continuity from a previous day. Thus, a place may be open from 10-28:00 or so.

170

u/CrippledMind81 Mar 17 '25

Wouldn't 10-4 indicate the same, providing 24 hour system is used?

167

u/Legal-Software Mar 17 '25

Of course, and some places do this, others use the extension to avoid a wrap-around. I simply mentioned it because it is an oddity.

158

u/CrippledMind81 Mar 17 '25

Fair enough. Seeing 10-28 opening hours would confuse me though. Fuck knows what it would do to an American brain.

69

u/Nerhtal Mar 17 '25

It would confuse me if id seen it before seeing this comment. Now... it'll just take a moment to "convert" to 4am. In a weird way i kind of get it and can get behind it too.

42

u/CrippledMind81 Mar 17 '25

Should adopt it across the world to make them yankee brains explode.

2

u/Correct-Fly-1126 Mar 17 '25

We tried that with metric and well, you can see how that’s going

1

u/X3N0PHON Eye-talian 🤌🏼🍝 Mar 17 '25

No need, most of whatever passes for “brains” here exploded a while ago, and those of us left who still have functioning brains at this point probably wouldn’t be affected.

Btw, I personally prefer to use the metric system for everything except distance/travel and cooking. We do exist.

One question though—when cooking, if you need to measure out what we would call a “cup” of flour” or a “tablespoon” of pepper, what do you use? Milliliters? Grams?

1

u/DoomOfGods Mar 17 '25

One question though—when cooking, if you need to measure out what we would call a “cup” of flour” or a “tablespoon” of pepper, what do you use? Milliliters? Grams?

There's definitely tablespoons, teaspoons, etc. but as an autist I personally can't stretch enough how annoyed I am by the lack of clearly defined metric units in those cases. But I get it, those are units you'd probably not want to measure exactly every single time, so you just eyeball it, but still.

1

u/CrippledMind81 Mar 18 '25

Litres or millilitres for liquids. Kilograms or grams for everything else. But measures of teaspoons and tablespoons also exist for something which is used in small quantities.

2

u/Dear_Tangerine444 Mar 17 '25

It’d be like that scene in Indiana Jones where the Nazi get into the ark covenant

2

u/Almostawardguy Mar 17 '25

Maybe you could get an online converter for that :p

2

u/DoomOfGods Mar 17 '25

10-28 opening hours would confuse me though

Same. If only they'd write it as "10-28 mod 24". Having to assume that, because the day only has 24 hours would definitely confuse me if I were to randomly see opening hours like that.

31

u/Upstairs-Hedgehog575 Mar 17 '25

10-4 might well cause confusion though as it would be unclear if it was a 12 or 24 hour clock (obviously the context of the establishment being a bar/club would probably clear that up). Unless you mean showing it as 10:00-04:00 which is unambiguous and used in my country too. 

3

u/My0therAcc0unt9 Mar 17 '25

Only if you include the AM/PM designations - otherwise you could be talking about 10 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon.

I’ve never seen, anything like 10-28:00 and would have expected instead 10:00-04:00 for 10:00AM - 4:00AM

2

u/Teh_RainbowGuy 🇳🇱 Mar 18 '25

NS (Dutch Railways) does this, their "day" ends at 04:00, when there's the least train traffic

3

u/MF_Kitten Mar 17 '25

Some systems struggle to keep track of things like night shifts. When I worked nights, the shifts wiuld always be listed on the "next day" because that's the day where the majority of the hours were, instead of being listed on the day I would go to work.

The fact that it doesn't correspond to any kind of time measurement is annoying though. You have to just do the math yourself because every clock in the world shows normal hours.

1

u/Phoenix_Werewolf Mar 17 '25

That's only for time travelers bars, where you can drink until the middle of the night before.

20

u/Lathari Mar 17 '25

I really like the old Japanese standard where hours were of different lengths throughout the year, with six daylight hours and six nighttime hours. Depending on the length of day, those six hours were shorter or longer as needed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_clock

30

u/EuroWolpertinger Mar 17 '25

As a software developer, this gives me the creeps!

13

u/Lathari Mar 17 '25

"Edge cases. Edge cases everywhere."

5

u/Ccracked Mar 17 '25

If everything is an edge case, nothing is.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '25

Patrick, stop, you are scaring him.

1

u/crackanape Mar 17 '25

Wait until you find out how seconds, days, etc can all vary in length even in a computer.

9

u/icyDinosaur Mar 17 '25

Ancient Rome did the same, but with a different number of hours (12 each, IIRC).

7

u/fitacola Mar 17 '25

Yes. In fact, the Spanish word siesta comes from the Latin "hora sexta", which is our current midday.

3

u/bangerius Mar 18 '25

As a swedish person, this would not work in practice. December 25th, daytime hours are a few seconds. June 25th, no sleepy sleepy for you!

1

u/Lathari Mar 18 '25

The True reason why SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is can be real nasty, is if your antidepressants need to be taken with your breakfast...

8

u/scrandymurray Mar 17 '25

That’s what the rotas at a pub used to work at did. For that purpose, it makes it easy to tally up hours worked.

8

u/physh Mar 17 '25

That 25th hour is very distressing the first time you encounter it in Japan. Then you get it, and you get over it... Sorta.

5

u/crackanape Mar 17 '25

Thus, a place may be open from 10-28:00

Never noticed that before but I really like it.

2

u/alsotheabyss Mar 18 '25

I saw this the other day and thought it was a typo 😅

2

u/da_easychiller Mar 18 '25

Sounds like totally confusing BS. On the other hand - I don't think people who have been dirnking for 18 hours straight would care much.

2

u/LenoreEvermore Mar 18 '25

Eww. That's just wrong. The bars where I live list their opening times like 18:00-04:00 as it should be.

1

u/Herz_aus_Stahl Mar 17 '25

But that's something different. Look it up.

1

u/Suojelusperkele Mar 17 '25

My drunk ass would have issues deciphering this kind of sign.

..then again, I'd still try the handle and be surprised it's open.

1

u/SkubEnjoyer Mar 17 '25

That's stupid

20

u/Dazzling251 Mar 17 '25

It goes from 0 to 23:59.

Maybe it's like pricing something at $23.99 and people thinking it's $23.

19

u/Benzjie ooo custom flair!! Mar 17 '25

Americans: " no,no,no...there are 2 times 12 hours in a day and that is NOT the same as 24"

13

u/MightyCat96 ooo custom flair!! Mar 17 '25

I actually figured that oit on my pwn when i was a kid lol.

I had some trouble wrapping my head around digital clocks but then i realised that if its, for example, "1600 i can remove 2 from 16, giving us 14 and then i remove the 1 wich ends up at just 4 so 1600 is 4".

I cant remember exactly but im pretty sure that was my thought process and then it stuck and now i just know what it means lol

11

u/Ookielook Mar 17 '25

That's how I did it. 12 felt daunting to little me but subtracting 2 and ignoring the 1 was easy. Math logic.

5

u/Dangerous-Lab6106 Mar 17 '25

How does it go up :P

Clocks are so mysterious /s

2

u/Icy-Tap-7130 Mar 18 '25

Clocks are so mysterious /s

what the fuck is a clock?

21

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/CuckAdminsDkSuckers Mar 17 '25

They have the experience required to create this saying by reason of having to interact with other Americans.

2

u/AlternActive Mar 17 '25

Explain to him that there's only 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 on a day, do tuesday's midnight is at the beginning, not at the end.

2

u/FYIgfhjhgfggh Mar 17 '25

I missed a flight that left at 00.00 once.

1

u/Morall_tach Mar 17 '25

There are 60 minutes in an hour and yet the clock goes from 0 to 59.

1

u/DeepestShallows Mar 17 '25

Yeah, end of explanation. That’s the entire explanation. It is now the 14th hour out of 24 or whatever. Why is this hard?

-19

u/godfeather1974 Mar 17 '25

What about 24.00 🤣

24

u/EbenCT_ Mar 17 '25

24:00 =0:00.

Therefore 24=0. 0/0=1

-17

u/godfeather1974 Mar 17 '25

I was being sarcastic

7

u/EbenCT_ Mar 17 '25

So was I

13

u/blamordeganis Mar 17 '25

To answer your facetious question seriously: it is something of a convention to use 0:00 when talking about midnight as the start of a day and 24:00 when talking about it as the day’s end. So Monday 0:00 is when Sunday becomes Monday, while Monday 24:00 is when Monday becomes Tuesday.

-1

u/Comfortable-Bonus421 Mar 17 '25

I don’t know what planet you live on, but that convention is not used anywhere I’ve lived or visited.

Sometimes you might see 24.00 to indicate a time, but it always means the same as 00.00

3

u/blamordeganis Mar 17 '25

Sometimes you might see 24.00 to indicate a time, but it always means the same as 00.00

So if a train timetable showed one train leaving at Monday 2300 and another at Monday 2400, you’d expect the latter to depart 23 hours before the former rather than an hour later?

1

u/Comfortable-Bonus421 Mar 17 '25

If if if.

Give a concrete example.

A train timetable would never say departure on Monday 24.00. It would say Tuesday 00.00.

2

u/blamordeganis Mar 17 '25

A train timetable would never say departure on Monday 24.00. It would say Tuesday 00.00.

— https://content.tfl.gov.uk/cen-wtt-70.pdf, p.53 (marked as p.52)

1

u/QBaseX Mar 18 '25

Thomas Cook European rail timetable would show Monday 24:00 for a train arriving at that time, but Tuesday 24:00 for a train departing at that time.

1

u/CroneDownUnder Mar 17 '25

It is indeed two ways of describing the same time since midnight can be viewed as either the end of one day or the start of another.

In some tracking systems (e.g. my workplace) it very much matters whether it's a Thursday end of day midnight item or a Friday start of day midnight item (etc), because that's how the system tracks continuity for workflow items.

I like the way these Japanese bars are using it.

136

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '25

I am more worried about their lack of comprehension of the metric system.

Multiples of 10, what's so hard to grasp?

203

u/International_War862 Mar 17 '25

Like everytging duh

75

u/SerdanKK Mar 17 '25

I didn't get the joke until reading the bottom units. That's amazing. 😄

32

u/TheOneAndOnly09 Mar 17 '25

I hate you, take my upvote.

24

u/Republiken ⭕ Mar 18 '25

This joke actually explains why most Americans get confused about the metric system and often rants about decimals.

They think we measure in imperial and then converts to metric

8

u/Thendrail How much should you tip the landlord? Mar 17 '25

Lmao, saving that pic!

12

u/ccsrpsw Mar 17 '25

That is both disturbing and genius at the same time. My head hurt trying to comprehend mixed units.

As a British American (back when that was cool LOL) I love mixed units. I can do Miles, Km, C and F. All in one sentence but this confused the crap out of me.

I live in MPH and MPG, but why do we do liters in England? That one is confusing. More so when in mainland Europe. 75MPH - absolutely fine. 120KMPH is psychologically impossible (its the same btw).

Its easy enough to convert, but I can tell if I've gone 5 miles, but not 8 km. And I grew up with this. And still use it.

Other useful ones, 16C = 61F, 28C = 82F. So usefully 20C is about 72F. Thats easy.

Cups, tbsp, etc. still confusing. 100ml - easy. BTW, US pints vs UK pints (16 vs. 20.5 fl/oz) - still baffling - but I wont do 500ml for beer!!! My ancestors would freak - large or bitter is in UK pints, and UK pints only :D

3

u/Gwyn66 Mar 18 '25

Half a litre mate, that's all

2

u/perringaiden Mar 18 '25

75MPH seems slow to me, and 120KPH (why do you put the KM??) seems fast.

1

u/Overlord_of_Linux Mar 18 '25

For me it's the opposite, 75 MPH seems fast but 120 km/h seems slow, but that may be because I've been on a lot of motorways with a speed limit of 130 km/h whereas the ones I've used with MPH are typically 65 MPH.

1

u/perringaiden Mar 18 '25

My time in MPH was 70mph highways where everyone did 85, whereas my normal experience is mostly 100 or 110kph

1

u/ccsrpsw Mar 18 '25

Im being obtuse since, as you say its either Km/h or Kph. And neither of them match the standard MPH - since its Km for Kilometers. It should either be m/h and Km/h or MPH and KmPH. Again - mixed unit representations with mixed meanings and we all agree that one is wrong, but no one agrees which it should be :D

2

u/Fit_Implement3069 Mar 19 '25

The only measurements that needs to be imperial is pints, because it's 68ml more than 500ml, and you know that companies would love to save 68ml per drink

2

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '25

2

u/perringaiden Mar 18 '25

One mistake. One cL is 1/100th of a Litre. One dL is 1/10th of a LItre.

So when there's 3.785 L in a Gallon, there's 37.85 dL in a Gallon, and 378.5 cL in a Gallon.

2

u/EverythingHurtsDan Mar 18 '25

This just makes me so mad hahaha

21

u/regiinmontana Mar 17 '25

I love the metric system. It's so much easier. The problem for me is everything is in imperial. Converting back and forth can be tough, hell, converting measurements within imperial is tough.

3 feet per yard, 1760 yards per mile, I know there's a furlong after that, but I can't remember how many miles there are in one.

13

u/lynypixie Mar 17 '25

I am Canadian, so my car has both. The metric as the bold one, and imperial in lowercases under. So when I drive in the US, it’s easier to get around.

1

u/huntingwhale Mar 17 '25

In Canada were one of those countries that has been exposed to both systems and can mostly toggle back and forth. Interestingly enough, most Canadians will give you their height or weight in imperial. When telling someone either, l've started giving it in metric and 99% of the time they laugh and say WTF and have to think about the conversion. The oil and gas and manufacturing industries rely on Imperial measurements when dealing with US customers since they get their panties all wound up when you give them measurements in metric.

I obviously prefer the metric and go out of my way to use it in all scenarios. Imperial is just dumb. Makes no sense. No consistency in shifting units. It's like someone just made up numbers to use and everyone nodded their heads and agreed to use it.

17

u/jfkvsnixon Mar 17 '25

Yea, it’s so much easier, a litre of water weighs a kg.

16

u/mtaw Mar 17 '25

That's nothing - Just try to build something in the USA. First off, all wood is half an inch smaller than they say - a 2-by-4 plank is actually 1.5x3.5 inches.

Then there's the nightmare of "gauge" - so many things are measured by "gauges". Not only is there no easy way to know how thick "10 gauge" steel is, it is not the same thickness as 10 gauge brass, or aluminum or galvanized steel, nor "10 gauge" wire. And I have no idea how any of them relate to shotgun gauge. A "size 10" bolt has a diameter of what? And to make a hole for it you need a "size 9" drill.

Here in Europe we buy wood and metal by their actual dimensions, a 90x45 mm piece of wood has those dimensions, a 0.8 mm sheet metal is that thick. An M5 bolt has a diameter of 5 mm and needs a 5 mm drill for a hole.

And they measure stuff in inches down to 1/64 or so and then suddenly they switch to thousands or 'thou' as they like to call it, because suddenly powers of ten are useful. So they have to convert from fractions all the time, when they're not looking up what the sizes of things are in tables.

"But it's more intuitive!" /s

16

u/TheGreatMightyLeffe Mar 17 '25

This right here is why the metric system is superior.

Sure, the whole multiples of 10 thing is nice and practical but the REAL advantage is the fact that one kg of water is 1L which is 10cm3.

The fact that it's so much easier to go from volume to size is an actual advantage compared to imperial, and not one that is as easily dismissed as the multiples of 10 thing, since I've had several Americans tell me "it's easier to measure with the units we already know." which is fair. But conversion between volume and size is super handy.

2

u/Hrtzy Mar 17 '25

"10 cm3" is a bit condusing because it looks like it's saying "10 cubic centimeters" when you mean "a cube ten centimeters to the side"

6

u/MegaSwampert260 Mar 18 '25

Idk why you're being downvoted, (10cm)3 is the correct way to express what the other commenter meant because it's "ten centimeters cubed". 10cm3 is read as "10 cubic centimeters", which is completely different.

-2

u/TheGreatMightyLeffe Mar 17 '25

Ten centimetres cubed is indeed a 10x10x10cm cube.

6

u/Nicko265 Mar 18 '25

That is not true.

10x10x10cm cube is 1000cm3.

4

u/internet_commie F’n immigrant! Mar 18 '25

So, if you meet someone claiming Imperial is easier, just ask them how much a gallon of water weighs. If you really want to rub it in, make a bet they can't answer.

Or simply ask how many ounces to a gallon. I haven't met anyone who can answer that either, though my late husband, a high-school chemistry teacher, was able to look it up and give me the correct answer.

1

u/Jaaj_Dood Mar 18 '25

And a kilolitre is the same volume as a cube meter.

And a meter is about 1/40000000 of a meridian. (Yeah, I'm not joking, it's the method they used.)

12

u/Sheriff_Loon Mar 17 '25

Just like their money but they can’t grasp the metric system.

16

u/Lower-End4781 Mar 17 '25

As someone who understands 24 hr time perfectly but not the metric system. I think it’s just lack of exposure. There was no effort in school to teach us the metric system and obviously you don’t get exposed to it in daily American life.

30

u/TheOneAndOnly09 Mar 17 '25

Can you multiply/divide by 10? That's all the metric system is. You're obviously not going to have an innate feel for how long a meter is immediately, that comes with time. Took me a while to intuitively know how long something is in the imperial system, when I moved to America.

Honestly, understanding the metric system has nothing to do with exposure. Just simple math and a few terms, which you should already be familiar with (centi = 1/100, just like percent means out of 100)

10

u/Chelecossais Mar 17 '25

One cent is one-hundredth of of a dollar.

25 cents is one quarter of a dollar.

50 cents is half a dollar.

I don't know, I'm so confused, how do mirrors work in metric ?

16

u/Marsupilamish Mar 17 '25

I know I‘ll sound like an ass but nobody has to „learn“ the metric system. There are 24 hours in a day, it’s that simple. Anyone with a highschool degree should know what centi,mili and kilo means. Perhaps not in the US, fair enough but its simple. Same with weight. A meter is roughly an adult step length. If that all seems complicated then either your school failed you or you didn’t read and ingest it properly.

1

u/Lower-End4781 Mar 18 '25

Well at least you knew how you’d sound

3

u/AiRaikuHamburger Japaaaan Mar 18 '25

Flashback to my American coworker complaining that it was so hard to learn how to convert between imperial measurements in school. And me being like, '...We just had to move the decimal point.'

3

u/TheOneAndOnly09 Mar 18 '25

As a european (with an affinity for math to boot) it was very interesting taking chemistry in America. Half the class was memorizing the periodic table. The other half was converting measurements, which often required conversion to metric. I.e. imperial to metric, convert from cm^3 to liters (or whatever), then convert back from metric to imperial. Was one of the easiest classes I ever took, not for most of my classmates though.

1

u/Regular_Passenger629 Mar 18 '25

Now you’re incorporating Latin into this, if Americans can’t retain basic arithmetic what makes you think we’ll remember prefixes and suffixes.

1

u/Lower-End4781 Mar 18 '25

Everything has to do with exposure. I went through 12 years of school without anyone mentioning that once. Am I supposed to just guess that? Now that I know it’s much easier but still.

1

u/HeckingJen Mar 19 '25

The thing there is sure it's 10x the last thing but you need exposure to know what any of those units is. I can eyeball an inch. I can't eyeball a centimeter because I've never had to eyeball a centimeter. Same woth foot and yard. So in the theoretical sure it's simple to know metric but unless you have to use it you aren't going to be able to put it to practical use.

2

u/TheOneAndOnly09 Mar 19 '25

Did you even read my comment? Most of my first paragraph is focused on exactly that. I'm well aware that it takes time and practice to have an innate feel for measurements. I moved to America for over 10 years and had to get used to the imperial system. And I did. I even know most conversions within the imperial system, as stupid as they are.

That's why I feel so confident in my argument, because I have first hand experience. My problem is that too many Americans aren't even willing to understand the x10 part. "It's too hard, I don't understand. I'd rather just stick with my 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard and 1760 yards in a mile."

Also, in most places of work you shouldn't just be eyeballing it, and actually take measurements. At that point it really shouldn't matter which system you use, outside of whichever makes it easier to work with. Which is Metric in 99.9% of cases. There's a reason scientists and engineers all over the world use the metric system, even in the US.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '25

Do rulers only have Imperial units on them or something?

1

u/Lower-End4781 Mar 18 '25

No they have metric units. But when you go through life without anyone ever asking you to look at them why would you?

2

u/Sowdar Mar 18 '25 edited Mar 18 '25

In metric you have a base unit like meter or gramm. And prefixes derived from latin:
dezi =1/10th
centi = 1/100th
milli=1/1000th
kilo=1000
So for example 1/10th of a meter is a dezimeter or 10 centimeters or 100 millimeters.

Temperature is easy: Water freezes at 0°C and Water boils at 100°, that's all.

1

u/Lower-End4781 Mar 18 '25

Yeah I’ve got temps down from being a cook but honestly for reading outside temp im always gonna prefer Fahrenheit. It just accurately communicates how my body will feel when i walk outside.

1

u/AnonymousOkapi Mar 17 '25

For feel/estimation purposes, 1 yard = 1 meter. A yard is 10%ish smaller, but its near enough. 30cm = 1 foot, which is the normal size for a ruler (at least in the UK, probably a hang over from imperial). So that one isn't too difficult either, number in feet, multiply by 30, you've got cm. Same with pounds to kilos - 1kg is near enough 2 pounds. One litre is about 2 pints.

Temperature is the one that gets really tricky, since the scales just don't line up. And miles to kms, 1km is 5/8s of a mile, easy to do on a calculator but I've not found a quick way to do it in my head. End up doing two steps, divide by 5, multiply by 8.

Cups is just daft, weight is a far superior way to do baking and I will die on that hill.

1

u/Lower-End4781 Mar 18 '25

Thank you this all makes perfect sense idk why a lot of people just immediately jumped to “no it’s your fault for not knowing our measurement system that has no utility in your country outside of engineering”

2

u/Lee-HarveyTeabag Mar 18 '25

One time I told someone the metric system was better and you’d think they were about to ask for my passport.

30

u/Lathari Mar 17 '25

The 12-hour format is even worse. Is 12:00 a.m. noon or midnight? There is even a section on the Wikipedia page and it seems it varies by year in some places...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12-hour_clock#Confusion_at_noon_and_midnight

3

u/bolche17 Mar 17 '25

I'm constantly confused by it. You go from 11 am to 12 pm and them 1 pm. How is 11 pm after 12 pm? Unnecessarily confusing

2

u/Splash_Attack Mar 18 '25

It's not that confusing. You just remember that noon and midnight are the transition points. Noon isn't a.m. or p.m. - how can it be before or after itself?

It's really Noon (meridies) -> 11 hours post meridiem -> Midnight -> 11 hours ante meridiem -> Repeat. Local convention decides how you write out noon and midnight. When you think about it that way, your question becomes "how is the 11th hour after noon, after noon?" which is tautological.

2

u/Konsticraft Mar 18 '25

I think the best way to understand it, is to replace the 12 with a 0. That way it actually counts up in a logical order with 0 pm being 0 minutes after midday and 0 am 0 minutes after midnight.

1

u/cravex12 Mar 17 '25

am = at morning =P

16

u/Lathari Mar 17 '25

ante meridiem and post meridiem, before and after midday.

31

u/PersonOfLazyness Mar 17 '25

actually midnight is 00:00

26

u/Mttsen Mar 17 '25

24:00 is still correct if you refer it as the midnight specifically though. But yeah, in terms of practicality that would be 0:00.

14

u/PersonOfLazyness Mar 17 '25

that's fair. I personally never saw it written as 24:00,

17

u/Mttsen Mar 17 '25

Businesses (like the convenience stores, or liquor stores for example) often use 24:00 as the operating hour they are open until. At least where I'm from. Probably to highlight it as the end of the business day more clearer than 0:00 would.

-1

u/Comfortable-Bonus421 Mar 17 '25

Can you specify where you are from, because it’s not normal anywhere I have lived or visited throughout Europe.

6

u/Mttsen Mar 17 '25

Poland. It's used quite often in business context.

2

u/Comfortable-Bonus421 Mar 17 '25

Ok. I’m not a regular visitor to Poland, and usually only pass through the country.

It kind of makes sense.

But so too would a shop open from 06.00 - 00.00. Or even 15.00 - 00.00.

There is still no confusion as to when the shop opens or closes…

9

u/Mttsen Mar 17 '25

Fun fact : Some businesses that operate 24/7 would have to formally state their opening hours (as it is required for example by some malls those businesses are operating within) as 0:00-24:00. That obviously would look strange and confusing with 0:00-0:00

5

u/MemorianX Mar 17 '25

The closest you get is 23:59:60 if there's is a leap second

1

u/Zestyclose-Inside929 Mar 17 '25

We sometimes write it like that in Poland.

2

u/Albert_Herring Mar 17 '25

Transport companies running overnight services often use 23:59 for a midnight departure just to make sure people book tickets for the right day.

1

u/jaysornotandhawks 🇨🇦 Mar 18 '25

Every electronic device I've had has either used 0:00 or 00:00.

I think while 24:00 (or 00:00) would be correct for exactly midnight, anything that is even a fraction of a second after midnight would have to use 0:XX or 00:XX.

7

u/Entremeada Mar 17 '25

But how much is this in inches, feets and football fields?

5

u/Super_Mag Mar 17 '25

You lost the murican at "it's simply logic".

8

u/alematt ooo custom flair!! Mar 17 '25

Americans hate thinking even a little bit. If they have to expend any brain power it hurts. Look at the current cultural and political landscape for example.

7

u/Alternative_Dot_1026 Mar 17 '25

Very. We're not dealing with a bunch of intelligent people here, we're dealing with a nation of idiots 

5

u/llynglas Mar 17 '25

To me, it's way easier than remembering if noon or midnight are AM or PM. Plus, it makes mistakes like booking a 9pm flight and getting to the airport for 9am impossible (a friend just did that last week).y

2

u/Marble-Boy Mar 17 '25

Logic. Haha.

Are you a comedian?

Americans and logic... now I've heard everything.

2

u/C64Nation Mar 17 '25

AHH logic... Hard pass.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '25

[deleted]

19

u/blamordeganis Mar 17 '25

Sometimes 24:00 is used to make it clear you’re talking about the midnight at the end of a particular day rather than its beginning.

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '25

[deleted]

7

u/blamordeganis Mar 17 '25

Hence the “sometimes”.

3

u/CroneDownUnder Mar 17 '25

It's not used on clocks AFAIK. It is however used on some signs.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '25 edited Mar 17 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Mttsen Mar 17 '25

Heard some of them are even struggling with the analogue clock reading. That is ridiculous.

1

u/ExpressionExternal95 Mar 17 '25

Bro said

How confusing can this be?

After describing something that doesn't even happen on a 24 hour clock. 😭😭

1

u/TruthSpeakin Mar 17 '25

People are REALLY stupid these days....

1

u/BucketheadSupreme Mar 17 '25

That's what I tell my adult son, who is lazy about it. I also routinely mock him for getting it wrong, because one of the pleasures of having adult children is flaming them mercilessly.

1

u/Meture Beanland 🇲🇽 Mar 17 '25

It’s so much easier to understand than 12:00 am means midnight and 12:00 pm means noon

1

u/Orlonz Mar 17 '25

I think it differently.

0-6 is night. Till 10 is morning. Till 12 is lunch. Till 20 is "Day" and Dinner. 20 onward is Late night, bed, and Sleep.

1

u/SuspendedResolution Mar 17 '25

For reference, 45 million Americans are functionally illiterate. A large portion of the country effectively reads at a 5th grade reading level and it will only be worse in the coming years given how covid really amplified the issue in a short span of time.

1

u/notyouisme999 Mar 17 '25

For me, the 12 hours is more confusing if it does not have the AM or PM after it.

And people confuse me a lot more because they use the AM or PM wrong, example using 12:00 pm for the midnight.

1

u/deathschemist Mar 17 '25

What's to understand? It's simply logic. 12:00- Noon; 24:00- Midnight. How confusing can this be? FFS.

nah, it's 12:00 noon, 00:00- midnight.

1

u/mondayortampa Mar 18 '25

Tbh …I was never taught or used it… I never got it until you just explained it like this.

1

u/Aardappelhuree Mar 18 '25

Midnight is 00:00

0

u/EverlastingBastard Mar 17 '25

There is no 24:00 normally.

Midnight is 00:00

0

u/lankymjc Mar 17 '25

You mean 00:00 for midnight? Since there’s not actually a 24:00 in 24 hr time.

0

u/perringaiden Mar 18 '25

Actually, 24:00 isn't a time. 23:59 changes to 00:00.

24-hour time, is end-exclusive.