Counting the Hours
When men decided to divide the day into twenty-four hours, they used
numbers one through twelve two times. As a result, there was one o’clock
during the day and another one o’clock after midnight. This created
confusion. If one was told to submit a project at six o’clock, did this mean
six o’clock in the morning or at night?
The Romans provided a solution to this problem. They thought that noon
time, the time when the sun is at its apex, is an important time. They called
noon Meridies and measured time by this. They called the morning ante
meridiem, which means “before noon” while “after noon” was called post
meridiem. Ante meridiem was shortened to A.M. while post meridiem was
shortened to P.M. 8. When the day was divided into twenty-four hours, what numbers were used to express time?(Literal)