We had a discussion going on at my workplace concerning 12:00 a.m. (Midnight) specifically.  Is Midnight written as 24:00 or 00:00?  We even had two guys that had been in the military disagree on this.  Can Midnight be considered both 24:00 and 00:00?

Thanks,
Scooter

00:00:00

There is no 2400...after 23:59 the next day starts anew...00:00

Ponyboy is correct.  There is no such thing/time as 2400.  Most cretans know what you mean, but 'taint correct.

Ponyboy, I forgot to mention that I have seen clocks(we have one at my workplace that has numbers 1-24 on it.  The numbers 13 through 24 are always under the main 1-12 numbers.  The number 24 is directly under the 12.  Why then are you saying that it is 00:00?

Scooter

[b][i]Source:
Time and Frequency Division
U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology[/i][/b]
   [url]http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/general/misc.htm[/url]


This is a tricky question (skip the first three paragraphs).

The answer is that the terms 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. are wrong and should not be used.

To illustrate this, consider that "a.m" and "p.m." are abbreviations for "ante meridiem" and "post meridiem." They mean "before noon" and "after noon," respectively. Noon is neither before or after noon; it is simply noon. Therefore, neither the "a.m." nor "p.m." designation is correct.

On the other hand, midnight is both 12 hours before noon and 12 hours after noon. Therefore, either 12 a.m. or 12 p.m. could work as a designation for midnight, but both would be ambiguous as to the date intended.

When a specific date is important, and when we can use a 24-hour clock, we prefer to designate that moment not as 12:00 midnight, but rather as 0000 if we are referring to the beginning of a given day (or date), or 2400 if we are designating the end of a given day (or date).

To be certain of avoiding ambiguity (while still using a 12-hour clock), specify an event as beginning at 12:01 a.m. (one minute after midnight) or ending at 11:59 p.m. (one minute before midnight). This method is used by the railroads and airlines for schedules, and is often found in legal papers such as contracts and insurance policies.

If one is referring not to a specific date, but rather to several days, or days in general, use the terms noon and midnight instead of 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. For example, a bank might be open on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon. Or a grocery store might be open daily until midnight. The terms "12 noon" and "12 midnight" are also correct, though redundant.

I always thought it was 2400hrs until 0001. There is actually a 2400hrs, but only for a minute.

In the military Ponyboy, sprayboy & spook2 are right [u]"midnight" is strictly 00:00:00[/u]!

ICBMs need to know little details like that.

I have told people that and they say, well it is either.  I had a teacher in high school who was in army communications and he said it was either.  I told him it was not and that 2400 hours did not exist it was in fact 0000 hour.  Glad to be proven correct.  Although my watch always goes from 23:59 to 00:00 every night, IM sure they made it that way for a reason.

If you listen to WWV or WWHV,(5,10,15,20mhz) it is stated as "zero hours, zero minutes, coordinated universal time"...beeeeep....

BTW, anybody know the quick way to tell WWV & WWHV apart??

NASA seems to (mostly) agree with you.
I don't know WTF they're talking about here (I think the bottom #s are about synchronizing the satellite's computers, before looking at the object). They clearly mention 24:00, but the instant it comes it's gone, & renamed.

[i]"Active region 8299 was TOD... We chose target coordinates to represent the center of this active region: at 1200 UT, Aug 12, 1998, estimated center of AR 8299 was at 145" E, 285" N. /SXT WSF observations occured between 18:38 and 23:56. The target was centered on the complex AR8299/8297 with a field-of-view of 192x192 SXT full resolution.. observed a number of interesting features including a) a small loop brightening emanating from a bright point and b) a brightening of a loop system to the NW. The bright point at the SE footpoint of the small loop which brightens can be seen at 19:23:45 UT.. MEES observations of 8299 occured between 1630--2330 UT. MCCD (H-alpha) and IVM (Imaging Vector Magnetogram) images were successfully attained TRACE observed between 12:00 UT and 24:00 UT, with an interruption from 00:00 until 00:30 for calibration purposes. Observations included 171 (full res) & 284 (2x2binned) images of a field of view of 375 arcsec. square centered on the AR coordinates. 1600A images were taken every ~min. for alignment, and WL every 1.5hrs.
............................................
ABS     23:59:54           SIAP  
ABS     23:59:57            SAP  
ABS     00:00:00            IAP   00:00:00:0000,SYNOPTIC,0,1,0,0,Synoptic_DC_and_CM,DC,SYN,
ABS     00:00:0000           NOM          
ABS     00:00:0007           NOM
............................................." [/i]