Challenge Your Teen’s Basic Knowledge (part VIII-military time)

Back in April, the challenge I put forth was to see if tweens and teens could read an analog clock. I didn’t get much feedback, so I’m not sure how everyone did but I’m changing up the “telling time quiz” today by asking adults to review military time with the youth in their lives. (And don’t worry, I’m about to give full disclosure to ensure you, the older and wiser one, is solid on your military time skills before you begin!)

Here are the steps to help write military time:

 Know that the military clock starts at midnight. Midnight is called “Zero Hundred Hours” (0000 hours) and runs consecutively for twenty-four hours, not twelve. Hours are written without a colon.

 Hours from midnight to noon, you add a zero before the hour and two zeros (or the number of minutes) afterward. For example, 2 am is 0200 hours. 10:12 am is 1012 hours.

 Hours from noon to midnight, you continue to count beyond 1200 for each passing hour (1300, 1400, 1500, etc.) and add two zeros (or the number of minutes) afterward. For example, 6 pm is 1800 hours. 11:49 pm is 2349 hours.

To say hours in military time:

 If there is a zero as the first digit, say the “zero” and the number followed by “hundred hours” (0200 hours is pronounced “zero two hundred hours”)

 If there is a one or two as the first digit, say the first two numbers as a pair of numbers (1100 hours is “eleven hundred hours”)

 If there are hours and minutes involved, say the four digit number as two pairs of numbers (1830 hours is “eighteen thirty hours” or 0338 hours is “zero three thirty-eight hours)

** Remember midnight to noon reads a time that is less than 1200 hours and noon to midnight is time more than 1200 hours. The first two digits in military time give the hour and the second two digits give the minutes with NO colon in between. And using the word “hours” is optional. Saying “oh” (instead of “zero”) as the first digit, is acceptable for civilian use. Ex: oh-800 would be 8 o’clock. **

Helpful Hints for Learning Military Time

 Hours from 1 am to noon are the same as civilian time.

 Hours from 1 pm to midnight, subtract 1200 to get standard time or add 1200 to get military time.

 When saying military time, numbers are said as a “hundred”, not “thousands”.

 Using military time eliminates the confusion between am and pm.

Military to Civilian Cheat Sheet

0001 = 12:01 am

0100 = 1:00 am

0200 = 2:00 am

0300 = 3:00 am

0400 = 4:00 am

0500 = 5:00 am

0600 = 6:00 am

0700 = 7:00 am

0800 = 8:00 am

0900 = 9:00 am

1000 = 10:00 am

1100 = 11:00 am

1200 = noon

Military to Civilian Cheat Sheet

1300 = 1:00 pm

1400 = 2:00 pm

1500 = 3:00 pm

1600 = 4:00 pm

1700 = 5:00 pm

1800 = 6:00 pm

1900 = 7:00 pm

2000 = 8:00 pm

2100 = 9:00 pm

2200 = 10:00 pm

2300 = 11:00 pm

2400 = 12 midnight

How did you do remembering the nuances of the prevalent method of stating time across the world? How did the tweens/teens do? Making this form of time telling a game, can make practice easy and before you know it, everyone will be an expert. Good luck!

Make the most of your day!

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