Why all clocks are made to show 12 hours? When we have 24 hours in 1 day.?

Answer 1

Not all clocks ARE made to show twelve hours. In fact, in Europe, you'll find that the majority of digital clocks do use the 24 hour standard. Most digital watches have an option to turn on 24 hour time. In the USA, this is often referred to as 'military time'.

There is another reason for 12 instead of 24 on analog (dial) clocks. With 60 minutes per hour, you want a number of hours that clearly splits the day but also can divide the number of minutes evenly. Since our time was traditionally measured in AM/PM cycles, 12 hours worked perfectly anyways, and each hour marker on the clock represented five minutes. To put all twenty four hours on the dial, you would have 2.5 minutes per hour marker -- and since this would be uneven, things were left as they were.

As digital slowly overtakes the traditional, I would expect to see a gradual move away from the twenty four hour clock, and as computer technology becomes more and more integrated into how we live our global lives, I frankly see a move away from timezones to UTC time globally, just to keep everyone in sync without having to do a bunch of obscure and often localized time zone considerations.

(edited a few minutes later)

And it is never appropriate to say 15o'clock. When using 24 hour time, you refer to it as 15 hundred hours. o'clock is only correct when followed by 'AM' or 'PM'. These are incorrect with 24 hour time simply because the use of 24 hour time precludes the need for AM/PM.

Answer 2

Some people have suggested that base 12 is a good base to work with.

It has a number of factors - 2, 3, 4, & 6. While base 10 has only 2 & 5.

When you work with time in base 12, you can use 1/2 an hour (30 min), or 1/3 hr (20 min) , 1/4 hr (15 min), or even 1/6 hr (10 min).

There is also a need to keep the number small, so that it is manageable. 12 hours is easier to keep tap than 24 hours, remembering that we are very comfortable with base 10. So, 12 is just 2 more than 10 but it offers certain advantages.

Answer 3

Not all clocks are 12 hours. Military clocks are sometimes 24 hours. It might be better to ask why a weird number like 24? Why not 10 hours in a day. Then every hour gets divided into 100 minutes with 100 seconds per minute. This makes more sense to me - you synchronize 10 equal units from Midnight to the following Midnight - let the scientists deal with the extra minutes that cause leapyear.

Suddenly, time is easy - on your fingers.

Time is man made.

Answer 4

Military time is a 24 hour day clock, but home clocks are more practical and have divided the day in half. Think how big a home clock would be if it had 24 hours instead of 12.

Answer 5

Clocks for the general public are produced with 12 hours, AM & PM because that is Standard Time.
Clocks for the military have either all 24 hours called out, or both Military Time and Standard Time displayed simultaneously.

Answer 6

Not all clocks are I have three 24 hour clocks in my house

Answer 7

I had a pocket watch that was my fathers - it had 24 hours on it and was a beautiful precise instrument - I cannot find it.
It is gone - maybe one of my ex's from Texas - has nabbed it.

Tune in tommorrow for the next exciting episode of ....
. . Time Flys - - - then you die

Answer 8

Get a 24hour clock it reads the other way.

but it is easier to say in conversation,.

It's 3 oclock than it is to say it 1500 hours.
or it's 15 oclock.

Answer 9

because we dont commonly use 24 hr time ,

we commonly use only the time up to 12 .

so that is why

Answer 10

i guess there are to many numbers to fit on the clock.