Thinking of "fourteen hundred hours" as 2 o'clock will take some getting used to, but there's one really good reason to switch your cell phone to military time: You'll never make an afternoon alarm mistake ever again.
Have you ever woken up late one morning to find your 6 a.m. cell phone alarm was actually set to go off at 6 p.m. that night? It's an easy (and far too common) mistake to make. Luckily, a quick switch of your phone's settings to military time will make the problem go away for good.
The reason airlines, public transit and the armed forces use 24-hour "military" time is to avoid confusion between a.m. and p.m. hours. You can take the same approach with your cell phone's clock settings to avoid accidentally setting your morning alarm at an afternoon hour.
After you make the switch, the time of day displayed in the morning until 12:59 in the afternoon will look the same, but the afternoon hours will switch to display 13:00 (for 1 p.m.) until 23:59 (for the minute before midnight). So when you set an alarm for 6:30, you'll know it'll go off in the morning to get you up and ready on time.
Not on board with a full switch to military time? Here's another tip:
If you want to be able to set alarms in 24-hour time, but keep your smartphone's main clock in the more familiar 12-hour time, install a secondary alarm clock app (like this one for iPhones). You can switch the app's alarm setings to military time, but keep your phone's main clock the same.
(Images: Composite Image [1,2,3], personal iPhone screenshots)
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I have such a hard time with military time. I have had to use it since moving to Argentina 7 years ago and I still haven't gotten used to it.
I've been all about military time since I was 12 and got my first digital watch.
I somehow doubt that they refer to it as "military time" in France...
I believe it's sometimes referred to colloquially as "Train Time" or "Train Schedule Time" in the UK at least.
Anyway, I switched my phone to this years ago mainly so I would be quicker at recognizing and converting the time. Subtracting by 12 is now my speciality ;)
Until analog clocks go away, this seems like it is only another way to confuse kids who have a hard time learning to TELL time in the first place. (I work in a public library, and it's actually shocking how many kids are clueless -- and I'm talking middle and high schoolers.)
When I lived in Ireland I never got used to "military" time. It would always through me off, as numbers tend to do. I had to count on my fingers usually. @Sherrybinnh, it's awful, I know. It still takes me a minute to read an analog clock. I can do it of course, but it takes me a minute, so if someone offers their watch, I just pretend to read it and say thanks, instead of letting them getting irritated that I take too long and tell me themselves. But like I said, numbers through me off, just like reading is difficult for some kids, anything pertaining to numerics takes me twice as long. Even a clock :/
I was brought up in England so what Americans call 'military time' was normal for us. I'm virtually illiterate when it comes to numbers (it that innumerate?) but never have a problem with a 24 hour clock.
In fact, it made me chuckle that it had to be explained here :)
I guess I've always been a bit of a geek, because I started switching all clocks to 24-hour time when I got my first Timex that allowed me to do so in high school. It has helped me so much since I have relatives in Europe and I do (or used to do) lots of international traveling to visit them—I'm never thrown off by travel schedules the way some of my American pals are. And in the past I've been super-duper-prone to screwing up alarms based on AM/PM, so 24-hour time just seems like an incredibly obvious solution. Even though I still think predominantly in 12-hour time, I like that Siri understands me if I tell her to set an alarm at "nine pee em" and she sets it for 21:00 like a good little robot.
I love that on my Evo 4G (non LTE) running CM7, when I set an alarm a quick notification pops up saying how long until it goes off. If I'm setting one for the next morning I can tell if it's correct if it says something along the lines of "This alarm is set to go off in 7 hours and 42 minutes" instead of something twice as long.
Thanks for giving me a nice laugh on Tuesday afternoon!
@SherryBinNH
I grew up in a European country where "military time" is simply called "time", so I learned to do both and guess what? I found a digital clock on military time easier to figure out than an analog one because I could never remember which hand was which.
Why wouldn't it be every alarm clock?
I find it strange that 12 hour clocks are still considered the norm, it just seems silly that each hour occurs twice in a day. I'm not sure how people find that system easier than one where numbers simply count up one time, and repeat when the day flips to the next.
Ive been using the international standard 24 hr time since studying abroad in France many years ago. It is very easy to to get used to and you just automatically read the time without doing the usual 14-12=2pm thing after a short period of time. I grew up with the 12hr clock but I find I even have to check to see if i have my phone on 24 hr time because I dont even realize it.
I'm into my fifth year of living in Germany, and I'm still not used to military time—or temperatures given in Celsius. But I'm doing a lot better with living in a studio apartment the size of a shoe box.
I grew up in Europe as well and of course having celcius and cm, and zulu time is much better :-) All these are more precise and more modern that the 16th century anglo-saxon ways of measuring anything, time, temperature or distance, that americans are so fond of, and think as THEIR way of doing things (hospitals work in mm, cm, military used 24:00 time format, need I continue?). Time to move to an international way of doing things. from NYC at 16:30, 17C, at at 100meter above sea level... CHEERS :-)
the 24 hour clock is no more difficult to learn than the 12 hour clock. it can take kids a long time to learn the time (ahem), and learning to read any clock has a lot to do with routine. giving the hours of the day meaning a child can relate to (what time do you have breakfast? what time does school finish? when is your favourite programme on tv? etc.) makes it easy for them to grasp the concept, not just the numbers.
what is disheartening is adults being lazy and stubborn - and i'm not pointing any fingers at nationalities (our way is the best yada yada). i can work in metric or imperial, it's not rocket science and i am no genius!
It's funny that is is 'Military time', since almost all the rest of the world use 24 hour clock. It should be 'Rest of the world time'.. Speaking as a european, I find american time and measurement weird, especially the not using metric system. It is so easy compared to cups, oz., gallons and what not..
A quick way to figure out military time is the following:
13:00 is 1pm as 12 plus 1 equals 13.
15:00 is 3pm as 12 plus 3 equals 15.
Or you can do the following:
13:00 is 1pm as 13 minus 12 equals 1
15:00 is 3pm as 15 minus 12 equals 3
And so on...
x
Actually, Anusha73 , it's metre and not meter.
;o)
x
I think that if I could just look at the clock when it reads 15:00 and be like, oh! I have an appointment at 15:30, and not have to subtract in my head (because like I said, I struggle, sadly) to think Oh! I have an appointment at 3:30pm. If EVERYONE in the US made that sort of time telling standard, and we weren't always trying to convert one to other so we could be understood and there would be no confusion, I bet it'd be great. It's difficult when in you're mind the clock starts over at 12 and to try to change it (when no one else you know is changing it) poses challenges.
Onlly once in many years did I mistakenly set a alarm for the wrong time. I always convert 24-hour time into 12-hour time in my head, which I have to do because the school where I teach uses it on all schedules.
I usually count backwards or forwards from 16:00 since that's what I remember. For a smart person, I'm hopeless!
I had to learn the metric system in 3rd grade, and yet nobody here cares or uses it.....
I also grew up in Europe on, uh "normal time" but we also had analog clocks and pretty much everybody knows how to use both. I don't get what's complicated about "military time".
In France we didn't say "fourteen hundred hours" but "fourteen hours". 22.47 is "twenty-two hours forty-seven [minutes]". We usually omitted to say "minutes" at the end.
And, yes, the metric system is so much easier than the US one. I never understood how people found it so difficult here to use units divided in increments of 10.
actually, Peteg, meter is 100% correct ;-)
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/units.html
I live in Ireland, and every clock in my house, including my phone is set to "Military Time" (we just it 24 hour). As far as I know it’s the default on most phones I think. Every clock in my house is set to 24 hour. There is no thinking about it or any confusion in the slightest. When I look at my watch and it says “15:30” I think “Urgh, there is another 2 hours left in work” (for example).
The problem I have is with analogue after growing up with digital time reading, when I have to tell the time from a clock, it takes me a good 2 or 3 seconds :P First its figuring out which hour it is, then how many minutes are left in that hour based on the big hand, even at that I occasionally get it wrong :*(
That’s why ever clock in my house is digital. B)
I grew up in Quebec where we use both 12h and 24h time, I learned 24h in school but 12h is used by our parents and we also consume a lot of US and ROC culture and items which use the 12h system. In my head 3pm is equivalent to 15h, I don't even need to do a conversion.
Hihi, military time :D For us in Switzerland, this is normal. But the units of the Americans are funny anyway. A U.S. gallon is 3.78 liters, I know, is an old wine measure in 1706, hello! 1706 :D Or 1 yard = 3 feet or 36 inches, you can also kidding students... Only in about five countries will not degrees Celsius use as the temperature unit.I do not understand why it must be so complicated? Nobody should say that the metric system is more difficult. 1 Kilometer = 1000 meters = 100000 centimeters, USA: 1 mile = 1760 yards = 5280 feet: D
US time and other measurements are so archaic for the same reason that most people still use a QWERTY keyboard.
Still chuckling ... I find it so hard to believe that people have a hard time (NPI).
Story (which is only amusing if you 'get' the 24 hour clock): Many years ago my mum was traveling to see my brother in the USA. I called his secretary to tell her what time mum's plane would be landing.
Me: The plane arrives in Miami at 13.37.
American secretary: What time is that exactly?
I agree that it should be called 'rest of the world' time! When I moved to the US it was 1994. I was brought up in a convenient era when we used both metric and Imperial measurements. Now, the UK very few people under a certain age understand ounces or inches. And as for recipes in America with cups! It probably won't ever happen but it would be nice to see the USA in step with the rest of the world.
My first job ever was at Tim Hortons and our clock there was in 24 hour time. We had to write the brew time on the pots so we could change it after 20 minutes (yes, we really do keep the coffee fresh). So after that I got used to 24 hour time. Basically just take the second digit and minus 2 and hide the one. So if it's 15 hours, that's 3pm. Or minus 12 but I find my way easier ;)
Or avoid apple and get an android phone - mine tells me "x hours until alarm" when I set it, so I never make that mistake.
After 20 years in Canada, I still think in "military" time and of course in Celsius and metric. It makes so much more sense. And yes, it did happen to me that my alarm clock/radio did not go off in the morning because it was set at 6:30 PM instead of AM (I wish I could change it).
I can do yards and inches but I draw the line at the fractions. WT* is 3/16 of an inch? Impossible to visualize that. And I am not into Fahrenheit either.
Meh, I like 12 hour clocks and I never set the alarm wrong, learn to pay better attention imo. Inches and feet make more sense to me and like everyone else that grows up with fahrenheit, it just makes more sense.
What ever single poster here fails to understand is that the system you use is much like a language. It does not matter how hard or difficult you think it is, if it is what you know,what you grew up with, then its relation to your surrounding environment simply makes sense.