Is 12 noon 12am or 12pm?

Greetings Auclaire:

Noon is considered 12:00 p.m. although it is termed "noon."  The last
p.m. hour before midnight is 11:59 p.m. and then midnight signifies
the beginning of a.m.  The last a.m. time before p.m. is 11:59 a.m.
and then noon rings in the p.m.

You may visit http://pages.prodigy.com/KLXV46A/time.htm to see the
a.m. times shown in green and p.m. times shown in yellow.

From that site it is explained:

"The first half-12 Midnight through 12 Noon-is called AM (ante
meridiem, before noon).
"The second half-12 Noon through 12 Midnight-is called PM (post
meridiem, after noon).
"Niether AM nor PM should be used to denote either Midnight or Noon
without ambiguity.
"To denote Noon the word Noon should be used. To denote Midnight, the
word Midnight should be used.
"This system is used primarily in the United States."

You'll notice under that where the military denotes "The hours
0000-1200 corespond to to the AM hours, and 1200-2400 corespond to PM"
and please review the entire page for more facts on our time system.

Thank you for asking this interesting question and I'm happy I could
be of assistance.

Best regards,
journalist-ga


SEARCH STRATEGY:

a.m. and p.m. explained

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Clarification of Answer by journalist-ga on 29 Jul 2003 12:03 PDT

PS  A little extra: You may also enjoy the many links at
http://www.timeanddate.com/ and the world time zone map at
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/world_tzones.html

Best regards,
journalist-ga


SEARCH STRATEGY:

time zones explained
time zone map

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Request for Answer Clarification by auclaire-ga on 07 Dec 2003 09:27 PST

Would that I could always respond with charm and without
intentionality! Thanks for your note. I intended to send a tip but
couldn't find a place to do that; I have a question on that in to ga
right now. Thanks again.

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Clarification of Answer by journalist-ga on 07 Dec 2003 21:14 PST

Auclaire:

"Would that I could always respond with charm and without intentionality!"

Ditto!  lol

Tips are never expected nor required, and always appreciated. Don't
worry about that: if you're pleased with my research for you then I'm
already tipped a great compliment!  :)

Best regards,
journalist-ga

Sorry for the time lapse.

Another site of interest is http://nist.time.gov

In addition to showing the official time of the US, there are links to
pages which show the history of the time system and various other
measurments.

NIST = National Institute of Standards and Technology

At http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/general/misc.htm#Anchor-57026 
 you'll find that "The answer is that the terms 12 a.m. and 12 p.m.
are wrong and should not be used."

It's PM

It's also use as a.m. and p.m.
If you refer 12 noon as 12 o'clock it will be 12 a.m.
another way for 12'o clock can refer as 0 p.m.
as same as 0 a.m. in midnight are 12 p.m.

Thanks for the rating Auclaire and I'm delighted you were pleased with
my research.  By the way, you left a *perfect* ratings comment for the
nature of your question!  ;)

Best regards,
journalist-ga