Military time, can someone explain it to me?

Question

just curious. I want to know the time when I look at my watch, not do math. So what is the purpose for this strange way of knowing the time? thank you.

Answer 1

The purpose of it is so that you don't get confused with whether your commander means AM or PM. It starts at one minute past midnight, which is 0001. Then you just add which hour of the day it is. 4:00 PM would be 1600 hours because it is the 16th hour of the day, 9:00 AM would be 0900 hours, and 9:30 PM is 2130 and so on.

Answer 2

Explain Military Time

Answer 3

Since there are 24 hours in a day, the military uses military time to differentiate between AM and PM. So, if something is to happen at 0745 hrs, then it would be 7:45AM. However, if the same event would occur at 7:45 PM, then it would be 1945 hrs. The reason for this is to avoid confusion. An easy way to tell the time in military time is to do this: if it is after noon, and you want to know the time, add 12 to the time it says on your watch. For example, if your watch says 8:22PM, the correct military time would be 2022 hrs (8 +12). You will get used to it if you practice it for a little while. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

as you know regular time goes from 12AM to 11:59PM instead of messing with AM and PM it just continues heres a chart

0:00 = 12:00 AM
1:00 = 1:00 AM
2:00 = 2:00AM
3:00 = 3:00AM
4:00 = 4:00AM
5:00 = 5:00AM
6:00 = 6:00AM
7:00 = 7:00AM
8:00 = 8:00AM
9:00 = 9:00AM
10:00 = 10:00AM
11:00 = 11:00AM
12:00 = 12:00PM
now it starts to get different
13:00 = 1:00 PM
14:00 = 2:00PM
15:00 = 3:00PM
16:00 = 4:00PM
17:00 = 5:00PM
18:00 = 6:00PM
19:00 = 7:00PM
20:00 = 8:00PM
21:00 = 9:00PM
22:00 = 10:00PM
23:00 = 11:00PM

and finally the purpose is to be able to put just straight 23:00 and then everyone knows what time it is because often times 11:00 gets confused with the other 11:00 and it would be a disaster if one field commander thought the troops were attacking at 11:00 in the morning and the second commander thought they were attacking at 11:00 in the evening so 11:00 and 23:00 clear this up.

FUN FACT: often times when working with overseas forces ZULU time is used which is the exact time it is on the prime meridian or in Greenwitch England (AKA GMT or Greenwitch Mean Time) ZULU is the international time like the meter is the international form of measure

Answer 5

The reason we use military time in the military is so you can tell someone the time for something, without using am or pm. If I were to say 5 o'clock, you don't know if it's am or pm. Also, in the military we don't work the normal hours that everyone else does during the day. We are working 24/7. I currently work at night. I work from about 2300-0800 (11pm-8am)
Military time is help keep things simple and short. Now, look up zulu time. That makes this whole time/military time thing get even more complicated

Answer 6

Military time is based on the 24 hour clock, once you've gone past 12-noon, you just keep adding an hour instead of saying PM, so 1pm would be 1300, 2pm would be 1400 and so on. a quick way to find what time it is is by subtracting 12 from any number over 12. so 1325 minus 1200 = 1:25pm

Answer 7

The main purpose is to distinguish between AM and PM. If used properly, military time is designed to do just that.

There are 24 hours in a day, therefore the first twelve hours are the lower end of the scale, i.e. 0100 hours, 0200 hours, 0300 hours, etc., this goes all the way til 12:00 hours which is noon. After that, the scale continues, 13:00 hours (1:00PM), 14 :00 hours (2:00PM), 15:00hours (3:00PM), etc., this goes all the way to 24:00 hours, which is midnight. After that, it starts all over, again!

Answer 8

Midnight = 0000 hours
1 a.m. = 0100 hours
2 a.m. = 0200 hours
3 a.m. = 0300 hours
etc.
Noon = 1200 hours
1 p.m. = 1300 hours
2 p.m. = 1400 hours
3 p.m. = 1500 hours
etc.

The idea is to have a system where people who need to coordinate times do not have any confusion about whether it's a.m. or p.m. If someone has to ask, "Does the invasion start at 6 a.m. or 6 p.m.?" that adds confusion, and could spell the difference between life or death, success or disaster.

It was also used to coordinate train (and bus and airplane?) schedules in most European countries, probably for the same reasons.

To easily convert military time to standard time - for example, if you see 1630 hours - simply subtract 1200 from the value, or 4:30 p.m. If the number is greater than 1200, it's p.m., and less than 1200, it's a.m.

Answer 9

Military time is based on a twenty four hour clock. It begins on Midnight. It is used in Europe too by ordinary people. So, from Midnight to the Noon hour, the "military" clock is the same as the AM/PM clock.

AM= ante (before) meridian PM= post (after) meridian

The meridian is the "prime meridian" in Greenwich England. That is where the "zero" hour is measured from on the military clock. At one time it was also the international date line. The AM/PM clock is still measured from Greenwich. You will see it listed sometimes in your email or on your computer as hours + or - 0:00.


Military Time----------AM/PM Time
1:00------------1:00AM
3:00------------3:00AM
7:00------------7:00AM
11:00---------11:00AM
12:00---------12:00PM (noon)
13:00----------1:00PM
15:00----------3:00PM
19:00----------7:00PM
23:00---------11:00PM
0:00-----------12:00AM (midnight)

As you can see the clock will never reach 24:00, just like the AM/PM clock never reaches 13 o'clock. So, one clock goes up to 24 hours, and the AM/PM clock goes only up to 12 hours and starts over again.

Why? Soldiers prefer it; they consider it more accurate to measure the 24 hour day on a 24 hour clock instead of a 12 hour clock. Also it is shorter to say the number of hours rather than AM or PM hours. Another reason is, when communicating in a noisy environment, (for example when bombs and bullets are exploding by you) or over a scratchy radio or cell phone connection, it is clearer and faster to say "fifteen hundred hours," rather than "three o'clock PM". It's much easier to confuse the sound of the words five o'clock and nine o'clock than seventeen hundred or twentyone hundred!

Answer 10

It comes from early radio communication, where you could say 13hundred hours instead of 1pm, without confusing the other person if you meant am or pm. The time runs from midnight to midnight. 200 hours would be 2am, and
2 in the afternoon would be 1300 hours. The weird part is between midnight
and 1am, where it would be 0 hundred hours, 12:30 am would be 0:30 hundred hours.
Once you get past noon, add 12 to the time, 6pm being 18:00 (hundred) hours.

Answer 11

Military time uses a 24 hour clock instead of a 12 hour clock. This eliminates the need to designate AM or PM when specifying time.