Why is it that Americans refer to 24 hour time as military time? I understand that the military uses the 24hr format but I don’t understand why the general public would refer to it like that?

It makes it seem like it’s a foreign concept where as in a lot of countries it’s the norm.

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[–] 19 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

By the book, you’re right. No colon when written, and if the last two digits aren’t “00” they are supposed to be pronounced individually.

4:45pm = 1645 = “Sixteen Four Five hours”. (Or “Fooor fife” if you’re a pedant about radios.)

That’s all well and good trivia, in practice it’s usually said “Sixteen forty five” because yeah ain’t nobody got time for all that.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    As a fairly-new ham radio operator, I need to improve my numbers pronunciation so maybe I'll start reading the time like that and see how other people react.

    Already, I get a number of confused-then-resigned looks when saying "sixteen o'clock" haha

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