Why is NZ still using the 12 hour clock?

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#1330948 24-Jun-2015 20:17

openmedia:
ScuL:
Jase2985: There are 249 Country Codes in the ISO Standard List:
I cant see there being 225 using the 24h clock as their primary.

think you got something a little mixed up there

You can invert it if you like. There are 7 countries in the world that use AM/PM:
United States, Phillippines, New Zealand, Malaysia, India, Canada (Except Quebec), Australia.
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/general-u-s/369587-12-hour-24-hour-clock-system.html#ixzz3dvzhUSNZ
Afaik the world has 232 countries, but that is subject to debate. :)

The UK tends towards AM/PM for general use.

This is indeed so.

No doctor's receptionist, dentist, bus service etc would normally be quoted in anything but am/pm.

The average chav would have no idea what you were talking about if you started doing that.

MikeB4

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#1330949 24-Jun-2015 20:19

I am from a military family, I use both the 24 or 12 depending who I am talking to, I dont see it as a big issue. It would be pointless using 24hr to someone that does not know it.

Gordy7

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#1330951 24-Jun-2015 20:27

I use 12hr and 24hr.

However 12am and 12pm stinks because of their ambiguity.

If using 12hr time I prefer 12 midnight and 12 noon...

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

Batman

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#1330964 24-Jun-2015 20:41

Sideface:
ScuL: Not intending to stir things up, but I only realised this after living here for a few weeks. Everything still seems to operate in 12 hour AM/PM mode? ...

That's like asking why the USA hasn't converted to metric weights and measures yet (NZ converted in 1967).

neither have air and sea pilots and navigators apparently

Screeb

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#1330971 24-Jun-2015 20:57

ScuL:
Does it matter, it still is an absolute minority on a global perspective?

It may be an "absolute minority" in terms of number of countries (though not for English speaking countries), but not in terms of actual population. Even using your debatable list, that's still a quarter of the world's population.

Jase2985

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#1330973 24-Jun-2015 21:08

Screeb:
ScuL:
Does it matter, it still is an absolute minority on a global perspective?

It may be an "absolute minority" in terms of number of countries (though not for English speaking countries), but not in terms of actual population. Even using your debatable list, that's still a quarter of the world's population.

and that was kinda my point from the beginning, how do you define a country as using a 12 or 24 hour clock? is it what the GOVT says or what the majority of the population use? there really is no way to gauge that accurately for most countries, as has been shown in this thread its a person thing.

ojo

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#1331057 24-Jun-2015 23:22

I set everything to 24hr but read the time as 12hr. I don't see what the issue is.

andrewNZ: NZ is moving away from both systems and moving to a customised (bastardised) system

e.g. "2 am in the morning" or "8 pm at night"

Every time I hear it I twitch.

The cousin of "$10 bucks". Bugs the crap out of me.

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Geektastic

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#1331061 24-Jun-2015 23:36

It all depends what you mean when you ask whether a country 'uses' the 24 hour clock.

I've travelled to a fair few places and never yet has anyone not in fatigues answered me in 24 hour clock when I have asked what the time is.

BTR

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#1331100 25-Jun-2015 07:55

andrew027:
BTR: Not trying to stir things up? We do something different and your complaining about it. You have two choices, get used to it or go home. We also drive on the left, invented pavlova, pineapple lumps and pronounce the word fish so it sounds like fush.

Welcome to New Zealand!

No, we pronounce it "fish". Australians pronounce it "feesh".

When I left school in 1977, I got a job in a data centre that ran 24x5 (and went 24x7 a couple of years later). We used 24 hour time because it removed confusion or the need to clarify if someone referred to something time-based. I've used 24 hour time since then, on any device or system where it's an option. But I can still use 12 hour time verbally in my private life, e.g. I'll tell my wife I'm going out after work and will be home about 7:30, not 19:30 - as it's "after work" she knows it won't be 7:30 a.m. I don't see any need to be confused by it. It's not like you have to tell the time in binary or hexadecimal.

Wouldn't a data centre in the 70's just be a room full of electronic typewriters and mountains or paper trays?

andrew027

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#1331132 25-Jun-2015 09:01

BTR: Wouldn't a data centre in the 70's just be a room full of electronic typewriters and mountains or paper trays?

Yeah, nah. A System 370/145 - IBM's first mainframe with all-silicon chip "monolithic memory" instead of "core memory" - running OS/VS1. With banks of 3420 magnetic tape drives and 2314 and 3330 demountable discs. Although we did still communicate with other data centres via teletype...

old3eyes

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#1331135 25-Jun-2015 09:06

I always use then 12 hour clock . In the days when I have to setup a VCR / DVD recorder that was in 24 hour mode it was so easy to get wrong. Give me am/pm any day..

Regards,

Old3eyes

geek4me

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#1331242 25-Jun-2015 11:00

I have no preference to the 12 or 24 hour clock. What I did find confusing in Holland was when it was half past the hour the Dutch and Germans (maybe others) would say it's half to the hour - that's confusing. e.g In NZ when it is 2 30 we would say it's "two thirty" or "half past two", the dutch would say it's "half drie" or "half 3". Why isn't this standardized worldwide?

Edit: Maybe the times are different because numbers are said the other way around in Holland too. e.g. 28 is said as "twenty-eight" in NZ while in Holland it is said as "achtentwintig" or 8 and 20. All backwards-to-front over there.

afe66

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#1331362 25-Jun-2015 13:19

Tradition.
Why change.

A.

gzt

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#1331452 25-Jun-2015 16:00

So what does it actually mean if a country has official 24 hour time and how does it make a difference?

Bus timetables with 12 hour times are an annoyance. But this is mostly a design problem.

gzt

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#1331454 25-Jun-2015 16:08

Why is NZ still using the 12 hour clock?

Because we have a large number of legacy 12 hour clocks and the cost of refitting those clocks to comply with a new standard is prohibitive.

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