Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Why does the USA not use the 24 hour clock?
- Thread starter Happybunny
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The answer is the population of the U.S. uses the 24 hr clock often, but it depends on the circumstance, and is not commonly used socially.
You're right, of course. It would be impossible to eat my bowl of linguini with anything other than my trusty spoon.
Wait, what?
But you're right about the "horses for courses" thing.
The 24-hour system's purpose is unambiguity: in many everyday conversations you can say "meet you at 6 o'clock" and its perfectly obvious from context whether you mean AM or PM - when it isn't obvious, 24h is a neater system than adding "am" and "pm" and less likely to be misheard or misinterpreted (hence military use).
Not sure which countries use 24h in everyday conversation - here in the UK, 24h is widely used in print - schedules, timetables etc. - because it makes for neater, clearer tables, but rarely in conversation.
The only unusual thing about the US is that 24h doesn't even get used on timetables. You'd have thought it would be popular in a country spanning several time zones (easier to add/subtract a few hours).
Interestingly enough, when timezones were came into widespread use in the US(for railroad purposes) Americans continued to use watch dials that looked something like this
These 20-50 years newer than widespread standardized timezones, but has a few features that make it ideal for timekeeping. Namely, note the large, bold hour numerals along with clearly readable markings on both the hour track and the seconds track. Another key feature is the presence of large, bold hands with the minute hand easily reaching the minute track and allowing for sub-minute resolution. Some dials-namely Montgomery dials and Montgomery-inspired dials(there is a difference) even went so far as to number the minute track.
(this is a true Montgomery dial, as indicated by the small 6 within the seconds track)
At other times, you would get nice, legible 5 minute markers
For Military watches(this one has an ordnance number on the case back and is also marked "US Gov't. on the movement) you might get something like this
There was a variant of this watch(Hamilton 4992B, although there is a virtually identical but much less common Elgin version) made primarily for the Navy which had a black dial, bold white hands, a sweep(center) seconds hand, and a true 24 hour hand(made one revolution every 24h).
While Canadian railroads seemed to prefer this arrangement
These 20-50 years newer than widespread standardized timezones, but has a few features that make it ideal for timekeeping. Namely, note the large, bold hour numerals along with clearly readable markings on both the hour track and the seconds track. Another key feature is the presence of large, bold hands with the minute hand easily reaching the minute track and allowing for sub-minute resolution. Some dials-namely Montgomery dials and Montgomery-inspired dials(there is a difference) even went so far as to number the minute track.
(this is a true Montgomery dial, as indicated by the small 6 within the seconds track)
At other times, you would get nice, legible 5 minute markers
For Military watches(this one has an ordnance number on the case back and is also marked "US Gov't. on the movement) you might get something like this
There was a variant of this watch(Hamilton 4992B, although there is a virtually identical but much less common Elgin version) made primarily for the Navy which had a black dial, bold white hands, a sweep(center) seconds hand, and a true 24 hour hand(made one revolution every 24h).
While Canadian railroads seemed to prefer this arrangement
Yes, and after serving in the US military some of us still use the 24 hour clock. I quite like it.
I am from the UK but work in the US and I use 24 hour clock with all my team, removes ambiguity and it is a global team. I would love to do GMT for everything, but that is pushing it a little right now 
Uh, if you are using a plate you use a spoon and fork...for a bowl...you use chopsticks!
In Canada, under US-influence since they refused to metricate and still are our largest supplier. Like another cultural exception: weeks starting on Sunday.
Count me in. More than once I set up an alarm for 9PM, which didn't strike me as odd because I can easily need to wake up at 9AM or 9PM, depending if I am taking a short nap in the evening. Missed work because of that stupid 12hr clock.
I think the purpose got lost when the so-called "Daylight saving time" was introduced. Legal time no longer represent the Sun's time, and most people are working indoors nowadays.
I live in the US and never have I ever purchased vegetables by the pint.
[doublepost=1485300385][/doublepost]
When I worked at Walmart everything was military time. Many businesses use it to prevent confusion.
Perhaps not vegetables, but fruit (berries in particular) are routinely sold by the pint or quart.
I've seen both, and this is confusing when recipes call for a weight of any given fruit / vegetable. One never knows if he's getting ripped or getting a fair price, unless he comes in the shop with a small scale.
Americans don't use a 24 hour clock because we only have 20 fingers and toes. Well, most of us.
Because there IS something better out there.
As for metric system- I don't even want to hear the road sign argument. We can just do what the U.K. does; just keep road signs and car related stuff miles and change everything else. There now that isn't so hard is it? We pretty much just only have to change the store and how we buy things. Fuel pumps just need to be reprogrammed and so what if we mention fuel economy as "miles per liter"?? The U.K. Does it just fine.
At the very least we need to describe "square feet" properly. As a home is 3,000ft² not 3,000 sq. Feet.
Last edited:
This cracked me up. Ah. I do find myself laughing pitifully when I realize I have to count the hours in military time. 13:00... Um 1PM! Yeah!
24- hour clock uses non natural numbers (0...23) not the natural (1...24) or 12-hour (1..12) so I'm not about to cut off a finger just to use a 24-hour clock.
Especially those organizations who are global and operate on a 24 hour schedule!
I was just putting together a PowerPoint presentation and on the agenda slides I had to consciously think to use 12 hour clock I kept typing in 24 hour clock times and then realized that 95% of the audience is US based :| It is really tough.
I was having the conversation with my other half the other day about this and she kept saying how she had to consciously translate 24 hour clock (she was annoyed the clock in my car is always in 24 hour format) and was shocked it was just subconscious to me to work in 24 hour format.
I was bought up on 12 hour clock in the UK, but started to travel internationally at a very early age and spend many years traveling the world on business so got very used to working in 24 hour format a lot. Still think it would be so much easier if everyone just moved to 24 hour format, and a full metric system
I kept typing in 24 hour clock times and then realized that 95% of the audience is US based :| It is really tough. I was having the conversation with my other half the other day about this and she kept saying how she had to consciously translate 24 hour clock (she was annoyed the clock in my car is always in 24 hour format) and was shocked it was just subconscious to me to work in 24 hour format.
I was bought up on 12 hour clock in the UK, but started to travel internationally at a very early age and spend many years traveling the world on business so got very used to working in 24 hour format a lot. Still think it would be so much easier if everyone just moved to 24 hour format, and a full metric system
I was bought up on 12 hour clock in the UK, but started to travel internationally at a very early age and spend many years traveling the world on business so got very used to working in 24 hour format a lot. Still think it would be so much easier if everyone just moved to 24 hour format, and a full metric system
As was I, and yes, a lot of international travel and working in international environments, has meant that I am comfortable with the 24 hour clock.
It is like kilometres and miles, - or any other format where you are equally cognisant of, and familiar with - two systems; you simply use whichever is in use in your current environment.
Actually, I'm comfortable with a 24-hour clock. Modern computer operating systems (Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, Linux, etc.) can easily configure between 12-hour and 24-hour clock display. And most current kitchen appliances with built-in clocks can be configured between 12-hour and 24-hour clock display, too.
By the way, the trick for me to understand 24-hour clocks is remembering 16:00 is 4:00 pm and 20:00 is 8:00 pm and work from there.
By the way, the trick for me to understand 24-hour clocks is remembering 16:00 is 4:00 pm and 20:00 is 8:00 pm and work from there.
not sure why people care
Being an engineer and a climate scientist, I don't really have a preference for unit of measure. I do usually convert to imperial at the end as I have an intuition of what it means....like I have no real gut sense of 30 m/s but 60mph I do. Same with temperature and same with time.
With computers and things these days, it is really a click of a button to work in whatever system you want.
Being an engineer and a climate scientist, I don't really have a preference for unit of measure. I do usually convert to imperial at the end as I have an intuition of what it means....like I have no real gut sense of 30 m/s but 60mph I do. Same with temperature and same with time.
With computers and things these days, it is really a click of a button to work in whatever system you want.