Re:Swatch Internet Time (1998)
by ams6110 on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @08:39AM
(#16316120)
In Europe, most "official" times use a 24-hour clock (train schedules, etc.). This is almost never seen in America outside of the military and many Americans would need to stop and calculate what time "17:30" is.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
>In Europe, most "official" times use a 24-hour clock (train schedules, etc.).
Uh, yeah, I'm well aware of that, as are most Americans I know. That's why I asked about "the American assumption that everyone uses the 12-hour clock". That must be a myth that non-Americans believe in.
Sidenote: AFAIK, UK also uses an AM/PM format for time, instead of the unambiguous 24-hour format.
In typically British fashion we use both quite readily.
Both are used, and it's fairly arbitrary which is used - bus/train times are usually 24-hours, general speech is usually 12-hour unless referring to something that is already in 24-hour time (but even then some people will switch them to 12-hour), and I see appointment cards, invoices etc. using both.
It's definitely in keeping with how we mix meters/feet and pints/litres.