John:

You're making the common mistake of characterizing 24-hour time as military
time. The military uses 24-hour time because, quite understandably, they
don't want any ambiguity. They certainly didn't invent it. These days,
almost all countries use 24-hour time for schedules (radio, TV, conferences,
meetings, etc.).

24-hour time has been with us ever since the day was divided into 24 hours.
A more relevant question is why and when it was subdivided into two 12-hour
periods. I don't know the answer to that. Students of horology probably do
know it, though.

Bill Potts, CMS
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]



-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of
john mercer
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 20:40
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:33298] military time


Hello Does anyone have any idea when the 24 hour military time was
developed. I tried to find it on Google but couldn't seem to. Thanks

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