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.

  • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    Because the average American is much more likely to bump into American military personnel than people from countries that use 24 hour time. It’s really as simple as that.

    • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      And this isn’t because we’re uncultured swine, it’s because we’re separated by two oceans from most countries.

        • BlackVenom@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Which is a few countries south of the US and connected to NA by a nearly impassible forest and no roads… Might as well be another ocean.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The entire US logistics chain runs on 24 hour time, even the 100% domestic aspects.

        The logistics chain would also save tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue every year if we ended daylight savings time and time zones, and collectively is one of the biggest lobbies for those changes

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Logistics uses 24 hr clocks to be as precise as possible

            The reasoning for lost revenue is a long story, but to heavily TLDR it, the entire logistics chain is basically a giant house of cards, and every mistake compounds repeatedly. Everything from a scheduling error at one warehouse to a driver not knowing about weird time zones (like AZ), to international miscommunications, all pile up on both their own individual load/order and every other step in the chain. A mistake at one manufacturer rolls to the next manufacturer, which then snowballs to the receiver, influencing timing on the last mile delivery.

            Because of the heavily interconnected nature, any mistake in documentation, ordering, or timing causes significant delays and missed revenue elsewhere.

            • Dashi@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Thank you! That makes sense, i appreciate your time and thoroughness of your response!