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How is "PM" more specific than "noon"? Absent the context of this conversation, it's not immediately obvious to me whether 12 PM is midday or midnight, where a
by jstanley 9y ago
How is "PM" more specific than "noon"?
Absent the context of this conversation, it's not immediately obvious to me whether 12 PM is midday or midnight, where as "noon" is unambiguous.
- macintux 9y agoI think historically "noon" expresses less precision, although I suspect that's less true now that everyone always knows what time it is and has GPS in their pocket to help calculate arrival times. 20 years ago, had I said to someone "I'll be there at 12pm" it would have had a stronger implication of precision than "I'll be there at noon." I don't think it's true today.
- jstanley 9y agoUnderstood. So the difference is you interpret "noon" as an ill-defined probability distribution centred roughly around midday, rather than a concrete point in time, whereas you interpret "12PM" as a concrete point in time. Fair enough.
- macintux 9y agoGo back further and "noon" is "whenever the sun is at its zenith" so we've definitely made strides.
- itronitron 9y ago12pm is also commonly interpreted as midnight so "12 noon" or "12 midnight" is generally preferred when scheduling meetings or deadlines in order to avoid confusion.