Re: Is 00:00 hours (midnight) 12:00 AM or 12:00 PM ?

Date: Tue Mar 6 17:08:13 2001
Posted By: Steven Furlanetto, Grad student, Astronomy, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Area of science: Astronomy
ID: 983873016.As

Message:

That's a good question! In everyday use, midnight is normally denoted as 12:00 AM. However, if you want to be technical, midnight and noon are neither AM or PM. This is because `AM' means `ante meridian,' or before noon, while `PM' means `post meridian,' or after noon. So by definition, noon itself can't be in either piece, and similarly with midnight. Here are some more detailed explanations of this issue:
http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/general/misc.htm
http://www.uselessknowledge.com/explain/time.shtml
http://www.freewarenet.com/features/12am-pm/

Current Queue | Current Queue for Astronomy | Astronomy archives

Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Astronomy.