Time is always essential especially for people who have hectic schedules. There are different interpretations of time in different places of the world. But there are two major formats for this, the standard and the military.
The standard is the normal 12 hour format that people use every day. The Military has a different format used in coding their activities and that is the 24 hours format. This format does not stop the count at 12 but continues up to 24 before it resets to 1, which marks a new day.
The 24 hour format that the military uses these days originated in Egypt. Proof to this has been found on the coffin lid, called the ‘Diagonal star table’, which is associated to the Egyptian’s 11th Dynasty.
This puts the history of the 24 time clock (military time) somewhere between the 9th and 10th Dynasty or CA 2100 BCE.
It was found in Asyut, Egypt. Though this was used basically for astrological matters specifically of the Decans by Egyptians in those times, the format has been found very effective not only for military purposes.
Throughout the years, it has been used by scientists, navigators, and horologists. Modern time astronomers, on the other hand, have ceased using this format in favor of more up-to-date systems.
The 24 hour clock is commonly used in some specialist areas like hospitals, tourism, military and other places where the 12 hour notation ambiguities can be considered too troublesome or dangerous.
For military purposes, the two major forces—Britain and the Unites States– have agreed to improvise the 24 hour format. Here is the list of these improvisations that the two major forces have agreed on:
Different places in the whole world have their own time interpretation but mostly, people divide the 24 hours into two, the first 12 fall under the ante meridiem (a.m.) or before midday and the next 12 will be post meridiem (p.m.) or after midday.
This is pretty much the same with the 24 hours format of the military time. The first 12 is the ante meridiem (a.m.) period or before midday while 12:01 to 24:00 mark the post meridiem period (p.m.) or after midday. The main difference is that the 24 time clock of military people does not reset after the first 12.