Military Time: The 24 Hour Clock

Regular time uses numbers 1 to 12 to identify each of the 24 hours in a day. With military time, the hours are numbered from 00 to 23. Minutes and seconds are expressed exactly the same way with military and regular time. It is not necessary to change anything regarding minutes and second when one switches from military time to regular time and vice versa. Unlike standard use of the 12-hour and 24-hour clocks, you don’t place a colon between the hour and the minutes when writing military time. It was when someone gave me a time that was in the afternoon or evening that I had trouble. I knew I had to add or subtract 12 to convert military time to standard time, I just never knew which one was the correct option in that moment. Consequently, I would stand there in silence, furrowing my eyebrows, trying to make the conversion as quickly as I could so I didn’t look like an idiot. Although the system is meant to eliminate confusion, it can sometimes be tough to adjust to. In the military world, time is referred to using this system.