Monday 23 March 2015

A bit about the time


Hi all it is now Monday afternoon, I had a productive morning, I was sorting through some mail and went into Tim's office to file something away and the state of the room annoyed me so much that I ended up spending a good hour cleaning the room up, which lead me to cleaning the area next to the stove in the kitchen.

Tim use to complain about the state of my computer desk but he has a whole room and it is usually a right mess far more so then my computer desk.

I was thinking yesterday about AM and PM when I was asked by one of my girls way back when what AM and PM stood for I said AM was after midnight and PM was past midday, well yesterday I thought what does AM and PM really stand for.

So I did what all people with internet do when they have such thoughts I Goggled it and it turns out that AM stands for “ante meridiem”, which means “before noon” in Latin, while PM stands for “post meridiem”, which means “after noon” in Latin.

So now I have learnt something new, did you know what AM and PM stood for, my common sense told me it wouldn't have stood for after midnight and past midday but I still think it is an easy way to explain AM and PM to young ones and those who may not be able to get their head around the Latin meaning.

No I know we all should know that there is a 12 hour clock and a 24 hour clock, the use of a 12 hour clock goes back to ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians who recorded and kept time by using sundials during the day and water clocks at night.

Egyptians are thought to be responsible for dividing the day in to 24 equal parts, because they counted their joints in their fingers instead of counting using their fingers as is now commonplace.

So is it 12PM or is it noon?

When you think about it technically speaking 12PM does not make sense, since it is not after noon, the same can be said for 12AM as that is not before noon. So it is recommended that one refer to these hours as midnight and noon. Although most digital clocks tend to show 12AM and 12PM to specify midnight and midday.



10 comments:

  1. What a very cool and interesting post. I did not know what the letters meant so thanks for the lesson. Your answer to your little one was perfect in my opinion!

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    1. Thanks Barb it was interesting but I still think my answer is the easiest to understand

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  2. I didn't know the technical reason for AM and PM, either. Interesting! :)

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  3. Dearest Jo-Anne,
    Good for you for bringing this up here. Both of us have been at the Amsterdam airport often and one time there was an Australian couple, trying to check in for the 8:00 PM flight but were told it was an AM flight and they missed it. Most international travel service do print the 24 hour time which for sure would have prevented this terrible fate for the young couple...
    Hugs to you,
    Mariette

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    1. I know some people who do not understand 24 hours time, yeah I know strange

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  4. Well I certainly learned a few new things here. I often wondered about the weird 12pm and 12am thing too, it never made a lot of sense to me and when I was younger I often found it really confusing.

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  5. I oddly enough never gave it much thought till I was older

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  6. Interesting facts about time. All I know is that it goes too darn fast except at the dentist.

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    1. Oh yeah time in the dentist chair just seems to drag on

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