The real question is: what is mid-day? John Hawthorne, Crawley, W Sussex. One must recognise the difference between points in time and periods of time. Midnight is the zero point in time when we start to build up 24 one-hour periods of time to make up a new day. So midnight is the point 0am. After a period of one hour we reach the point in time called 1am, and after 12 periods of one hour we reach the point called noon.
At noon the 13th one-hour period starts, ending at point 1pm. This process continues up to the point 11pm when the 24th period of one hour starts. This period ends in the middle of the night, 12 hours after noon at the point midnight or 12pm. Geoff Berriman, Sandal, Wakefield. Working on the hour clock meant that there was no difficulty with midday - hours - but the Air Force could not countenance hours for midnight. We were instructed that the Air Force day began at hours and ended at hours.
The two minutes between were ours to use as we liked. AS IS clear from consideration of the literal meanings of am and pm, noon is 12m, while 12am and 12pm have equal claims on midnight. We tend to avoid 12m nowadays from fear that someone may think m stands for midnight, but in avoiding this confusion we have been thrown into worse confusion by trying to determine which of 12am and 12pm to assign to noon and midnight.
As it is dark then, I've always supposed it is midnight. Denis Buckley, Darwin, Australia. But one minute after midnight Hence for consistent usage, 12am must mean midnight. Adrian Pollock, Yardley, Pennsylvania. Regardless of thoughts about points in time, Also, an event that starts at This means that a meeting that starts at Therefore, Try booking some meetings, lunches etc at Phil Benjamin, Enfield, Middx.
Working on the hour clock meant that there was no difficulty with midday hours - but the Air Force could not countenance hours for midnight. I am appaled at the rubbish I have read on this subject. There is no genuine confusion nor ambiguity only a self-made one.
As the day begins at midnight, midnight must be 12am. The moment of noon is in the first second, consequently minute and hour of the afternoon therefore noon must be 12pm.
It is poppycock to say that 12am and 12pm do not exist by considering the moments of noon and midnight within their own right - once the measures they belong to become clear, any supposed confusion vanishes. However, for those who must use this notation, take a look at your digital clock dislay 12hr. When it changes to 12 noon it shows 12pm! And at midnight 12am!
However, there are cases where the first sentence really means "the midnight at the start of Friday". Since the common usage conflicts with the technical definition, if you want to be totally clear, use other words or other times. Another way to avoid ambiguity is to use a 24 hour clock. Midnight between Thursday and Friday is Thursday, and Friday. In conversation, the 'night' of which 'midnight' is in the middle, is considered the night of the date mentioned.
If you are referring to a deadline, this also will refer to the stroke of 12 after the evening of the same date. Should not be confusing to anyone. Plus, since the only confusion could possibly be that it was due a day earlier, there can be no misunderstanding excuse for not getting the paper in on time.
The entire convention is based on the typical human schedule of being awake during the day and asleep during the night. Even the 'wee hours' can be used conversationally to mean the 'night' prior. If we apply your argument to 12pm, being labeled in that fashion implies that it is in the evening, and therefore it must be at the end of the day. Thus, people are wrong to go around calling it "noon", which is clearly in the middle of the day, not the end.
By convention, "midnight on the 10th of December" should refer to the end of the day of December 10, the instant before December 11 starts. If I say "last midnight" you can be assured that I am referring to a time less than 24 hours ago, and if I say "midnight tonight" I am referring to a time less than 24 hours in the future. The existing answers are already good, but for anyone who might get confused, I think this might be an easy way to remember the common definition: "Friday midnight" means "middle of Friday night".
Since Friday night pretty much never refers to early morning Friday, it stands to reason that neither does the middle of Friday night. If you look at most writing and scientific guides, there is no such thing as 12 a.
Technically, you should refer to 12 noon or 12 midnight. It's technically neither. It's just midnight. The abbreviations for am and pm come from the Latin words "ante meridies" am and "post meridies" pm. Meridies means noon, so post meridies means after noon and ante meridies means before noon. In hour time notation, "" and "" refer to midnight at the start of a given date. TL;DR: "Midnight" should only be used where the night is certain or conceptional.
Conceptionally the individual night does not matter. In denoting a specific point in time, clarify the night not just the day - especially when on a deadline. Colloquial use can be a strong argument if a term stands firm in the language. If you are reading this then the term does not stand firm. Ultimately, you will have to observe or ask others how they use "midnight [of xday]" - which is how colloquiality arises.
Colloquere, colloquere! In the same way, "midnight" relates to a certain or conceptional night, not a day. While definition-wise midnight should be neither AM nor PM, from philosophical and technical points midnight is both preceeding and succeeding some midday thus being both AM and PM; dito midday. Binding midnight and midday to AM or PM and still avoiding ambiguity requires understood convention which works in small, agreeing and identified groups only and so makes for bad use in wider language where the group and convention of a speaker is not easily identified.
NIST radio broadcasts. NIST time. Local time. Leap seconds. Timekeeping and clocks. To illustrate this, consider that "a.
Since noon is neither before noon nor after noon, a designation of either a. Also, midnight is both twelve hours before noon and twelve hours after noon. Why are all time zones across the world based on GMT? What is longitude and why is the meridian moving? Buy Now. A stylish hour analogue clock that will make a statement on any wall, with its bold monochrome face, and matte black metal casing Visit the Royal Observatory.
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