Midnight

[benross66]

Can anyone tell me... Does minight appear at the beginning or end of the day, i.e. is tuesday midnight just after monday or just before wednesday. And is 12 pm the same as midnight? Thanks

[RCP]

I believe there is no such time as 12 a.m. (or p.m.). You have 12.00 noon or 12.00 midnight. So to answer your question one second before midnight is the end of a day and one second after is the beginning of the new one. Midnight is neither.

[benross66]

Thanks, RCP. I understood that there was conjecture as to what midnight meant, when used for planning purposes in the armed forces, for example, so the term is genrally not used to define a date. Logically speaking you are correct. However, I think that when it is used, there is some form of agreement as to what time 'midnight' 'means'. It is either the start or finish of the day.

[darth vader]

expanding RCP's conjecture, the 24 hour clock system takes 00:00:00 as being midnight (and also the start of the day). This is known as 12am indicating that it is the start of a new day, but anti meridian (before midday), morning ends at 11:59:59. 12:00:00 is midday and also known as 12pm (post meridian - after midday) and 23:59:59 as the end of the day

[rja211077]

i've always thought of midnight as 12am and noon as 12pm - it makes sense to change the suffix at the same time you change the hour number (rather than an infinitely small fraction of a second afterwards). so it follows logically that you change the day and date at the same time and therefore a day starts at midnight and ends an infinitely small fraction of a second before it. mmm....deep, man.

[Mintox]

I just live by the 24 hour clock system.

[RCP]

Darth - can 12 noon be p.m.? Surely the meridian can't be post meridian? Somebody needs to get on to Greenwich to see whether midnight takes the date of the previous or next day as well. Any volunteers?

[Moog]

Logically speaking midnight occurs in the middle of the night and midday in the middle of the day so the start of the day must occur half way between the two which is 6am by my reckoning

[benross66]

RCP, darth vader, rja211077, thank you all very much for your replies. My reason for the question regarded a promotion I took part in and which I thought I had won - but I did not receive the bonus I thought I would be entitled to, which amounts to some GBP400, thinking I had missed the deadline. I was not going to contact the company concerned, but further to your answers I did, and it appears as though they have agreed to credit me with the monies. I know this might sound weird, but as a thank you if all or any of you is interested I would be glad to credit you with �25. I imagine the best way to do this would be some money transfer - I'm sure there are a lot of companies offering such services on the net (but have never used them). If you are interested, please email me at [email address removed as per site policy. Kudos and applause to all concerned for your various goodheartedness! - AB Editor!]. If not, please ignore my ramblings but accept my thanks. Cheers, Ben.

[brawburd]

aye, Ben - RIGHT!!!

[darth vader]

benross66 please send my �25 to Save the Children Fund
Cheers Darth

[RCP]

Good idea Darth - ditto for me. So Ben if you get e-mails saying they are from us they're not.

[rja211077]

give my �25 to a charity of your choice...but can i ask that you get a receipt, scan it in, post it to the web and post a link to it here? go on...prove us all wrong.

[benross66]

RCP, darth vader, rja211077, nice idea, guys. I emailed Save The Children this morning, asking them about some donor register, or something, as a way for you guys to see your contributions. I await there reply. If it is ok with you, rja, I'll donate your's to Save The Children too. Not quite sure I'm quite up to your suggestion, but I'm sure there'll be something we can do. I'll keep you all posted. Sorry, AB!

[darth vader]

ha ha no need for proof. It was just a suggestion and it's between you, your conscience, and god, as to whether you do in fact donate the money. May the force be with you.....

[benross66]

Darth, you're a pretty nice guy (or gal) - considering. I WILL obtain proof of donation. Whether or not you choose to reconcile my evidence with my claim will be a matter for your conscience. Thanks, though. "The force is strong in this one" (he he)

[Gef]

Taking benross66 at his word then I think that is a very generous which should be applauded. If he (or she) could also set up a bar tab for the Answerbank Convention in Glasgow then that would be most appreciated :-)

[benross66]

Guys, I finally got an answer from Save The Children. Unfortunately, the stipulations I made with regard to proof of payment do have not been addressed very effectively. They say that they can offer an electronic receipt, though when I tried a print screen to Word and then a copy and paste into one of these templates it did not work (it will not paste). Any other suggestions. Does anyone have a web site (we can put on web site addresses here, can't we) that i could send it (the receipt) to?

[benross66]

Final note on this... I donated �50 to Save The Children, receipt no. SZD27C69D76-14BB-46BF-94D8-D35932AC47B9 and/or 35971218. I donated my Dreamcast games console and 16 Dreamcast games, a dozen videos and about 20 CDs to Oxfam. Thanks for the help.

[AB Editor]

benross66 - thanks for final confirmation and may I add my appreciation for what you've done and how you've done it. I will try to notify RCP, darth vader and rja211077 so that they know about this. Thanks again.