I was raised on the 12-hour format (for example it's now 9:08PM), and that worked for me for a long time... then I got a job in security and was forced to learn 24-hour time. I liked it so much I converted as much as I could to 24-hour time. You can do it in Windows, though it's tricky... My watch would do it, but my alarm clocks, the microwave wouldn't. And most people don't understand 24-hour time, so you have to compensate for that.

I just think it makes more sense, though. Why does 12 come before 1 (12pm, then 1pm) and why do they start over halfway through the day? That's just stupid IMHO. And, what if something happens to slow the Earth down, so one rotation takes 25 hours? Will 12:30 be the new noon and midnight? I was thinking about this since on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine they have 26-hour days. 13th hour, indeed. But they use 24-hour (26-hour, really) time, so they're set up for it. And though DS9 is fantasy, when we move into space travel, we'll have to use a system more friendly to varying day lengths.

The difference in date formats is simpler. In America we would say today's date as December 17, 2005, but in the UK, they say 17 December 2005. In America we might say "The seventeenth of December" but we'd never write it that way. At first I thought it was crazy... and to an extent I still do. I do prefer the UK way, DD MMMM, but you have to use the word. 17/12/05 is OK, but only because 17 > 12. If the Day is less than 13 and not equal to the month, it's confusing... If I say 3/2/05, how do you know whether it's 3 February or March 2? (Of course 4/4/05 is April 4, regardless.) But, despite the confusion, I try to write the date UK-style, with the word for the month. It just makes more sense... you have 30 days in a month, 12 months in a year. Second - Minute - Hour - Day - Month - Year - Decade - Century... it just makes more sense to do Day/Month/Year. (Just don't ask me why we do Hour:Minute:Seconds because I know that's completely backwards, following the same logic.)

Tricky in Windows?

Click to view attachment

Just change the little h to capital

That's one of the things that I have always wondered about - I've gotten mixed up a couple of times. I do see your points.

I always go DD/MM/YYYY (or YY)

Converting from 12-hour to 24-hour time isn't difficult. Just add or subtract 12, depending on which system you start with. So, 8pm + 12 = 20:00. Conversely, 16:00 - 12 = 4pm.

MM-DD-YYYY Here (and most of US)

Or, if you want to make it just slightly easier - just subtract 2. For example 13-2 yields 11. Take the last number of the yielded amount, and you've got the 12 hour time. Again, 18:00. 18-2 yields 16. The the last number, being a 6 - and it's 6:00 (PM).

You're becoming a bit of an honorary (and that is how we spell it ) Brit, Mr. Dark Reality.

Welcome!

We always write it like seventeenth. 17th December 2005. Its quite common in the UK.

I always use 24 time, probably because when I was little our VCR was always 24 hour, I therefore confuse the hell out of everyone I know.

I find it scary people don't understand the 24 hour clock

Indeed, how difficult is it?!

@Cterry, same thing i ask myself too.

You can learn it in 1min actually

be quiet! you're spoiling dark reality's fun and adventures

MM/DD/YYYY makes no sense to me as they're not in order of length of time. I got quite used to using YYYYMMDD for a time though

I use 24-hour time mainly but have an analogue watch

As far as I know they don't teach it as standard time in the US, it's referred to as 'military time' and that's mostly where it is used. Personally, I prefer using the 24 hour clock.

I understand 24 hour time... I just don't use it. No one I know uses it

No one in the UK uses it when they write or speak, just on watches, clocks etc.

It's set to 24 hour format on my Mac.

I write it

You write in 24 hour format? Ok, then I'll rephrase. Everyone I know doesn't write or read in 24 hour format.

I always use 24 hour times as well. Most of my mail tends to be business orientated, not sure if that's the main reason for it though. Just seems to be how everyone deals with time.

After dealing with so many people from Europe on these forms, and many others, I began to write mm/dd/yyyy sometimes and dd/mm/yyyy sometimes. It confuses me a lot of what to do, and sometimes my teacher too, as my papers will be turned in on the 3rd day of the 23rd month.

Hehe

At least on this count both of our countries are 'wrong': the international standard is YYYY-MM-DD!

I use 24 hour clock dates like '12th december 2005' as dates on my forums/websites as i find people don't get confused with it. Mainly because american and uk dates are opposite, so you can't get mixed up with that.



I do.



Me too.



I use that when saving things on the PC if i want it saved in a specific order... i.e. mysql backups.

It's used a lot in business. And have you ever seen a bus timetable?

We do? I don't :\

I much prefer the British way of shorthand dates, it makes more sense. In the American style (MM/DD/YYYY) you can't go any further, but in british, it's in order, so if you wanted...

Ms/S/H/D/M/Y/C/Mi etc etc

Yes, tricky. It took me forever to find that. You would THINK it would be in the Date and Time Properties. But no, it's under Regional Settings. You can set that up when you first install Windows, too... but again, I had to dig for that.

Interesting trick, that's a new one on me.

What, it's not "honourary"?

And wouldn't it be "Mr Dark Reality"?

I don't know about honorary Brit... I don't know much about the country, as proven by some quiz on the BBC someone posted here a couple months ago. I thought it would be easy but found myself not knowing anything on there, though the British people here knew most of it. No, I just spend a lot of time talking to people from the UK and other parts of the world online, and pick things up... plus I read a paperback printed and edited in the UK (The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown, it's STILL hardback-only in the States... I paid hardback price for a £4.99 paperback, but I didn't care about the price, I just wanted to read it, and I don't do hardcovers)... so sometimes I go back and forth - I do something of a mix between the two, going with whatever makes more sense, as the case may be... hence this topic.

Yes, it is...

Unix time format. ;) And I use it for my photos as well, so when I'm browsing them, the folders are sorted by dates. It's the only way to get Windows to organize the folders by dates... the only format, I mean. So a folder could be called "CD 2005 07(July) 21 - Day at the Beach" for example... CD means it's a picture CD, year, month (number for sorting, name for easy reference), day, description.

I have seen an analogue wall clock which used 24 hour time. It was a bit bigger than your average wall clock, of course, but the rightmost number was 6, bottom was 12, and left was 18. And of course top was 24. Every 2 numbers was 5 minutes (24/2=12, 12*5=60). I want one...

The military uses 24-hour time, but a lot of companies do... mostly in payroll, I think.

Yep, just personally that's what I do.

That method is copyright me, any use must have written consent from the copyright holder (me).

Ahh, you noticed my little test. Well done, that man.

I find reading analogue harder than either of them. I find 12 hour easier, but 24's pretty easy once you know what you're doing.