[USMA:37400] FW: 24 hour clock the common way to go;

[Carleton MacDonald]

Believe it or not, this thread developed on a mailing list about the electric trolley bus!  The list is about all the ETB systems but emphasizes Vancouver, BC (sfu.edu = Simon Fraser University).   What got it started (not shown below) was a reference to the driver scheduling systems of some transit authorities using ending times beyond 2359, for shifts that start on one day and end on another.  That is, a shift that began at 1900 and ended at 0330 would be shown as 1900-2730.  Apparently there is computer software that can do this.  As with any thread it can wander.   The reference to the “ball in Times Square” that I made was that everyone knows what happens when the ball gets to the bottom of the pole:  Happy New Year, the new day/month/year, and that happens at 0000, not 0001 – which is why it goes 2359 to 0000 and not 2359 to 2400 to 0001.   Carleton   From: owner-[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:owner-[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Martin Wright Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 14:03 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 24 hour clock the common way to go;   Some of the earlier postings seem to imply that metric is superior to imperial and that the Americans are somehow dumb for continuing to use them. This is illogical. They are simply *different* units of measurement. True the maths is a bit easier with metric but that's about it.  With computers, calculators etc that advantage is not great.   Which reminds me of the advantage to mental agility that having to work with imperial measures and the old British currency (12 pence in a shilling, 20 shillings in a pound =240 pence) used to give a child. I remember as a 7 year old having to calculate (just pencil and paper) how much change I'd get out of £20 if I bought 3 items at £3 2sh 7d;one at 9sh3d and 7at11sh4d. oh happy days in the 50s!   Martin Wight ----- Original Message ----- From: Terry D. To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 4:04 PM Subject: Re: 24 hour clock the common way to go;   I suppose he is comparing the 24 hour clock to 'metric' time and the 12 hour (AM/PM) clock to imperial time. People that still use 'imperial' time are still (most likely) the ones to be using imperial weight / distance / temperature etc. Many people use a combination of whatever they like best and whatever suits their purpose. I like the 24 hour clock, pounds & ounces, inches, feet, miles, (but kilometers when it concerns swimming), & Celcius (centigrade).  For a lot of people it depends what they grew up with.  I like the 24 hour clock, but when giving information to people over the phone, we have to convert it to AM/PM because most of our customers that phone for schedule info are more familiar with that. Donald Galt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On 19 Oct 2006 at 11:58, Peter wrote: > The 24 hour clock might not be used by Americans > in Times Square, but then they still use miles, > gallons Masterpiece of non sequitur. How in the world did Carleton's reference to the Times Square ball lead to this? Don Galt Who uses the 24-hour clock in the US   __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com