Do you automatically know how to convert the time to military hours?

[GoldenHours]

At work we always have to refer to military time/a 24 hour clock. I often see people having to count with their fingers to what the time is (e.g. counting that 8pm is 20:00). Similarly, with months I see people having to count with their fingers what number month it is when writing the date (e.g. counting to see that August is the 8th month).

Do you know the time in 24 hours and the number of the months off-by-heart or do you have to count it?

NiceGerbil I do vaguely remember that but only now you mention it. Fascinating.

No but I always have to count my 6 digit bank security code on my fingers 😂

I learned by subtracting 2 after 12pm.

14 (4-2=2) 2pm
20 (20-2=18) 8pm

I know it as 24 hour clock, only heard it called military time by Americans. I don't really see it as something to learn separately to 12 hour clock any more than you have to learn to read and write capital letters separately to lower case. And I think everyone above the age of about 7 should know the number of the months since you have to write the date in your book at school!

@NiceGerbil

I cannot begin to get my head round doing physics/ maths in imperial.

Just... How?!

My MIL used to be a catalogue agent in imperial currency days and my DH remembers helping her do her accounts (he'd have been pretty young at the time!) and it being a nightmare.

I remember the triumph in junior school of the 1/2p being withdrawn and no longer having to count it in 'money sums'.

I’m ex cabin crew. Second nature in time to work out 19:00 etc. Also, working out the time at your destination.

I have the (very possibly incorrect) impression that the USA is even more 'imperial' than we are, whereas continental Europe is firmly metric.

American scientists use metric (of course), but quite a lot of their engineering seems to be in their version of imperial 'American Customary Units'. They have some quite odd units (slugs and kips) and apparently rate the electrical resistance of wire using a mix of SI and customary - ohms per thousand feet.

I automatically know them and prefer using 24 hour time so the am/pm can be ditched.

I think in military time, to be honest. Always found it more intuitive.

Xpost with NiceGerbil's space cockup story. Getting units consistent isn't rocket science...
DH got very confused once on a chemical plant in the US because the temperatures they were talking about were bonkers, made no sense ... till he realised they were using Fahrenheit not Celsius.

@ErrolTheDragon

I have the (very possibly incorrect) impression that the USA is even more 'imperial' than we are, whereas continental Europe is firmly metric.

American scientists use metric (of course), but quite a lot of their engineering seems to be in their version of imperial 'American Customary Units'. They have some quite odd units (slugs and kips) and apparently rate the electrical resistance of wire using a mix of SI and customary - ohms per thousand feet.

Fascinating - I'd never heard of slugs and kips! I've got an American recipe book and all the weights are imperial, plus personal weight always seems to be in lb in American novels (which I still have to divide by 14 because I think in stones - I usually think of 140lb being 10 stone and add or subtract accordingly).

I've never seen it in person, but the road sign change from the Republic of Ireland (European kilometres) to Northern Ireland (UK miles) has always fascinated me. It was pictured a lot in the news in relation to Brexit. I have a real fascination with cultural differences between countries that speak the same language.

Americans like bigger numbers hence their preference for fahrenheit and pounds.

@ErrolTheDragon

I have the (very possibly incorrect) impression that the USA is even more 'imperial' than we are, whereas continental Europe is firmly metric.

American scientists use metric (of course), but quite a lot of their engineering seems to be in their version of imperial 'American Customary Units'. They have some quite odd units (slugs and kips) and apparently rate the electrical resistance of wire using a mix of SI and customary - ohms per thousand feet.

I think they're sometimes called English or British units in USA rather than imperial? Not my area but have read that

Confusingly they are not quite the same as ours a lot of the time. I am pretty sure a gallon is different for eg.

The Mars climater incident was 1998!!!

'The primary cause of this discrepancy was that one piece of ground software supplied by Lockheed Martin produced results in a United States customary unit, contrary to its Software Interface Specification (SIS), while a second system, supplied by NASA, expected those results to be in SI units, in accordance with the SIS. Specifically, software that calculated the total impulse produced by thruster firings produced results in pound-force seconds. The trajectory calculation software then used these results – expected to be in newton seconds (incorrect by a factor of 4.45)[15] – to update the predicted position of the spacecraft.[16]'

'According to NASA, the cost of the mission was $327.6 million total for the orbiter and lander, comprising $193.1 million for spacecraft development, $91.7 million for launching it, and $42.8 million for mission operations.[18]'

I am very comfortable with the 24hr clock , all our digital clocks / home hub / boiler controls etc are set in that format .

I have to use it constantly for work so it’s absolutely intuitive for me, military time, calendar months, fiscal months, etc.

@Classica

I don't know the phonetic alphabet though and if I'm spelling something out over the phone always hear myself saying ridiculous things like Sylvia Python Elephant Loganberry Lumbering Igloo Noddy Goblin.

😂😂 me too!

I know both without thinking about it. 22:00 is 10pm, August is /8 etc. I do have to think about US date formats at work though and I find it hard to convert time zones and normally use an online checker. I've never heard 24hr clock called military time.

Month's I sometimes count, as for military time, that's easy as making a cuppa

At work we always have to refer to military time/a 24 hour clock.

Where are you in the world that you DON'T have to do it all the time? It was something I had to get used to when moving to the UK. Where I came from, time was AM/PM. Now everything is 24hr, the time on my phone, the clock on my car, train times, flight times, even the damn time on Mumsnet posts is 24 hour. How is it so foreign to you and your colleagues?

And do you really all have to count on your fingers for the months as well?

Unless all the people in your workplace are primary school children, I find it alarming.

24-hour clock I just know. It slightly annoys me when people write 1400 pm on emails.

I work in adult education maths. A lot of people don't know, and also just generally don't how to work with time and timings. Luckily these people aren't building space rockets.

I'm ex military so it's normal for me but I do like having fun with phonetics. Especially when on a call with a company (at work) and they're using phonetics and I can tell they have to think before using them like, alpha um foxtrot and I say that's right alpha and f for Freddie

Yes, it would be interesting to know what metric/imperial anomalies exist in other countries

Not sure if this is what you were asking but I always think tyre sizes are weird. They include the width of the tyre in mm and the wheel size in inches

I had no idea that there were working adults who had the difficulties described by the OP, but if they are American, it might explain why they always showed the clock incorrectly in 24. Eg they would show 05:00 for 5 pm.

If something isn't in use much where you live then people won't be familiar with it. Obv.

Yes and I know the radio alphabet as well.

Not sure if this is what you were asking but I always think tyre sizes are weird. They include the width of the tyre in mm and the wheel size in inches

I didn't know that - thank you! I don't drive so although we have a household car I'm woefully ignorant about its mechanics all I seem to do is pay for the wretched thing's upkeep