How to Tell Military Time

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By eHow Contributing Writer

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Military time numbers the 24 hours of the day from 1 to 24, rather than repeating the cycle of 12 hours twice. In several countries, time is kept on this 24-hour cycle.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Alarm Clocks
Women's Watches
Spiral Notebooks

Step 1

Note that the military clock begins with 0000 hours, sometimes called 2400 hours. When spoken aloud, this is said, "twenty-four hundred hours," which is the equivalent of midnight.
Step 2

Name morning hours as follows: 1 a.m. is 0100 hours, called "oh one hundred hours"; 2 a.m. is 0200, "oh two hundred hours"; and so forth. This pattern continues for the morning hours just as with the standard method of telling time until noon, which is 1200 hours ("twelve hundred hours").
Step 3

Remember that military time continues to ascend for the afternoon hours rather than beginning a new 12-hour cycle. Thus, 1 p.m. is now 1300 hours, or "thirteen hundred hours"; 2 p.m. is 1400 hours; and so forth. This pattern continues until midnight, at which point the military clock begins again.
Step 4

Determine afternoon hours in military time simply by subtracting 1200 from them. For example, 1800 hours is 6 p.m. in standard time: 1800-1200=600; 2200 hours is 10 p.m.: 2200-1200=1000.

Comments

longhairqueen said

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on 3/18/2009 Anonymous, I learned military time by using that shortcut you mention. Great article.

INeedText said

on 6/11/2008 Thanks for the information. I had forgotten how to tell Military Time. I appreciate your post. It was straight forward and helpful.
Shelly Borrell,
www.ineedtext.com

on 6/11/2008 Thanks for the information. I had forgotten how to tell military time. Your post was straight forward and very helpful.
Shelly Borrell,
www.ineedtext.com