Noon - 12am or 12pm

[BenDToy]

Following the question below, I believe that noon is 12am and one minute past noon is 12.01pm. Can anyone confirm this pelase?

[Quizmonster]

Some people in America apparently use 12 AM to mean midnight and 12 PM to mean midday. However, there really is no 12 AM or 12 PM. Why? Because the letters AM stand for 'ante meridiem' = before the middle of the day and PM stands for 'post meridiem' = after the middle of the day. Since 12 noon actually is the middle of the day, how could it possibly be either 'before' or 'after' itself? The same applies to midnight, which is equidistant from noon, whichever way around you look at it, so it's no more before noon than it is after noon! This is why a new day starts at 000001 AM...ie one second after midnight. The military and all major time-tablers have no time for midnight such as 2400 or 0000...they invariably use 2359 or 0001.

Certainly, a minute past noon is 1201 PM, however.

[rja211077]

let's not get into a discussion about infinity here but basically since the time is midday for an infinitesimal duration, the whole debate is pointless. however, i've always thought that it makes more sense to change between am and pm when the hour number changes (as opposed to an infinitely small amount of time afterwards) - therefore 12 noon would be 12 pm and midnight is 12 am

[BenDToy]

Thanks for useful and enlightening answers.

[Quizmonster]

Certainly, I agree that debating infinity is not a good idea! However, we see the problem right here, Rja. In the question, BenDToy claims to believe (quote): "that noon is 12 AM" and you've (quote) "always thought that...therefore noon would be 12PM". The two of you would seem to be at odds, therefore, as to which is which. That - quite apart from the logic of the language - is precisely why I believe it best to attach AM/PM to neither of the twelves.

In addition, since 'noon' consists of one syllable and 'midday/midnight' consist of two syllables each, it's actually easier - and there is no possibility of confusion - to say: "noon/midday/midnight" than it is to say: "Twelve ay em/Twelve pee em" each of which has three syllables!

Other difficulties arise if two times are involved. If someone said you were welcome to call "..between 8 and 12 PM", you presumably would turn up in the morning, but - if the host were BenDToy - you wouldn't be expected until evening! No...far better to stick with the utterly certain approach, I'd say. Cheers