John Schweisthal in USMA 9340 wrote: >In another e-mail she asked: "just a blink from France! what hour ist it in >Ohio? and what day? here it's fryday 24, and the end of the day of work >:6.10 PM ! >Sylvie > >Here she distinctly wrote 6:10 PM instead of 18:10 h. I didn't think am/pm >was known in France. My favorite French dictionary, Le Petit Robert, says under the heading "heure": "15 heures ou (cour.) 3 heures de l'apr�s-midi; 19 heures ou (cour.) 7 heures du soir." Note that in a clock or watch with a digital display a 12-hour display requires 4 fewer display elements than a 24-hour display. The first or leftmost figure of a 12-hour display is one, requiring 2 elemnets and a dot to distinguish between am and pm. The 24-hour display requires 7 elements to produce 0, 1, or 2 as the leftmost digit. Thus a 12-hour display is slightly cheaper. I wear s digital Timex watch that I set to 24-hour format.
