What does 12:00 am and 12:00 pm mean?
And... says who?
As far as I have heard, 12:00 pm can mean midnight but also midday. The same thing for 12:00 am.
I could not find an authority which defines any of those terms. Not even the NIST.
(But I found ISO 8601 which is being used by 95% of the world population.)
2007-07-06 05:07:17 · 23 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
Exactly 12:00 is either noon or midnight. One second after though, can make a difference. If it's 12:00:01, it's AM if it's just after midnight, and it's PM if it's just after noon. People shorten it so 12:00am would be midnight and 12:00pm would be noon.
2007-07-06 05:11:18 · answer #1 · answered by They call me ... Trixie. 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
By far the more common convention is to call noon 12:00 pm, but not everyone does. In instances where this kind of confusion might show it is helpful to check the context to see whether 12:00 pm means noon or midnight.
When this context is unavailable, people are likely to use military time and a 24-hour clock. There, the 24-hour day is considered to start at 00:00, which is midnight, go through noon (12:00) and end just before midnight of the next day. The timestamps on electronic messages typically obey this convention and usually have a designation for the time zone used as well.
2007-07-06 05:37:04 · answer #2 · answered by devilsadvocate1728 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
12:00pm, by right, does not exist as p.m. stands for post meridien(after noon), and a.m. stands for ante meridien which means before noon. So, 12:00 noon would be in the afternoon and 12:00 midnight would be the night.
However, as 12:00 noon is the beginning of the afternoon, most people still say 12:00pm instead of 12:00 noon.
2007-07-06 05:35:12 · answer #3 · answered by Kemmy 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
12 am is actually midnight and 12 pm is midday- the start of the afternoon
here some info that will help as well:
AM = Ante Meridian; PM = Post Meridian
where meridian is the point where the sun is overhead (aka "noon"_; "ante" means before (the noon line); and "post" means after (the noon line)
2007-07-06 05:22:26 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Even though I'm only 13:
12:00 pm = Midnight
12:00 am = Noon
2007-07-06 05:37:58 · answer #5 · answered by Baseball_Girl 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
PM - Post (after) Meridian.
AM - Ante (before) Meridian.
Meridians are those lines that run from the NORTH pole to the SOUTH pole.
AM - Before the sun is directly overhead (or over the Meridian of interest, as Time Zones lump meridians together).
PM - After the sun is directly overhead.
So 12PM is the time at which the sun has JUST passed being directly overhead of the Meridian of Interest.
The Convention goes back to Merry Old England, when it was the one and only super-power. The "Prime Meridian," that is Meridian 0, goes through Greenwich, England just outside of London. So you used to hear about GMT - Greenwich Mean Time.
2007-07-06 05:19:55 · answer #6 · answered by jbtascam 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
12:00 am is midnight, it is the start of the new day and 12:00 p.m is noon.Time repeats itself so there has to be a 12:00 a.m and p.m.
2007-07-06 05:27:40 · answer #7 · answered by Somily K 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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2014-09-04 11:07:47 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
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2014-09-03 13:28:52 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
12:00 AM has always meant midnight and 12:00 PM has always meant noon.
2007-07-06 05:10:58 · answer #10 · answered by vinster82 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋