When is midnight? Nomenclature question

Greg Black gjb at gbch.net
Sun Apr 23 07:48:23 UTC 2006


On 2006-04-23, Paul Eggert wrote:
> "Dave Cantor" <Dave at Cantor.mv.com> writes:
> 
> > ... "midnight Tuesday".  Midnight _used_to_be_ a synonym for 2400
> > hrs., the end of the day.
> 
> Yes, that's the usual meaning in English even now, I think.
> 
> > But we pretty much don't use 2400 hrs. any more, and "midnight" 
> > has become a synonym, in some contexts, for 0000 hrs., the start 
> > of the day.
> 
> Hmm, which contexts are these?  Do you have some quotes?
> 
> I ask because there is a lot of confusion around on this subject.
> For example, <http://www.physics.nist.gov/News/Releases/questions.html>
> says that railroads and airlines get around the 12:00 ambiguity by never
> scheduling departures for either noon or midnight, but I once had a
> printed airline ticket that said I left LAX at "1200N", meaning noon.

I recall when I was doing compulsory military service, they
always solved this by saying leave ended at 2359 on the day in
question.  Even for soldiers, this was unambiguous.

Greg



More information about the tz mailing list