Why is 12 hour time even taught? Wouldn’t it just be easier to remember 13:00 instead of 1:00pm?
In: Mathematics
Dividing the 24-hour clock into two periods came about because of sundials. For a couple thousand years, sundials were the main method of timekeeping, so you could only keep accurate time during half the day. The changeover happened at noon (at the sun’s highest point) because it’s an observable, universal frame of reference.
Mechanical clocks kept the division because it’s simpler to make a 12-hour clock than a 24-hour one. Obviously the system is obsolete in the age of electronic timekeeping, but it’s still a well-established system that most people are familiar with.
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