|
 Neither!
Twelve midnight A.M. and twelve midnight P.M., or 00:00
A.M. and 00:00 P.M., mean nothing at all. They are simply the
midpoints that divide the day into two equal halves.
Each and every day begins exactly at midnight, and each
A.M. begins precisely thereafter. Similarly, each P.M. begins
immediately after noon. No meaning can be assigned to 12:00
A.M. (00:00 A.M.), or to 12:00 P.M. (00:00 P.M.). They are
merely reference points meant to simplify timetables for
us.
Along the same line, the Universal Day, established by the
International Convention in 1884 in Washington, D.C., U.S.A.,
operates according to World Time, or Universal Time at
Greenwich, England. The logic regarding Midnight and Noon also
applies to Greenwich Mean Time, commonly referred to as GMT or
Zulu time; Midnight and Noon represent markers, or "page
breaks" in the day and in the night, and may be represented by
00:00 o’clock.
Greenwich, England also holds the distinction of being at
the point of zero longitude, where East meets West. The 1884
international agreement also recognized this line of zero
degrees longitude as the prime meridian, a point from which
all points on the earth’s surface are measured.
|
|
