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Actually, in the US military, it's common to refer to the first hour of the day as zero. As in, "zero hundred thirty hours" for 30 minutes after midnight.

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That the clock starts at 12 has annoyed me for quite a long time (i.e., 12PM comes before 1PM). I kind of wish that non-military usage also used 0:00-11:59, if only for the logical consistency of it.

Alternatively we could just switch 12PM and 12AM, but that would mess with midnight == start of the day.

Unfortunately I think I'm doomed to suffer through this inconsistency, since it doesn't seem to bother anyone else.

Why not use a 24 hour clock then? In Europe, 24 hour (digital) clocks going from 00:00 to 23:59 are commonly used. My French friends even use it even when speaking (I admit is kind of weird to hear "see you at sixteen thirty"), while in other countries such as Italy they use 24 hour clocks as well, but they "translate" it when speaking.

Yeah, I think that would be better.

I guess for me personally the perfect solution would be a 12-hour clock that operates on the same principles as the European 24-hour (which I think is the same as the military clock?). So 00:00 to 11:59, twice per day.

But honestly my whole argument is pretty academic, so I'll probably just put up with the clock starting at 12.

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