"Dave Cantor" <Dave@Cantor.mv.com> writes:
... "midnight Tuesday". Midnight _used_to_be_ a synonym for 2400 hrs., the end of the day.
Yes, that's the usual meaning in English even now, I think.
But we pretty much don't use 2400 hrs. any more, and "midnight" has become a synonym, in some contexts, for 0000 hrs., the start of the day.
Hmm, which contexts are these? Do you have some quotes? I ask because there is a lot of confusion around on this subject. For example, <http://www.physics.nist.gov/News/Releases/questions.html> says that railroads and airlines get around the 12:00 ambiguity by never scheduling departures for either noon or midnight, but I once had a printed airline ticket that said I left LAX at "1200N", meaning noon.
Is anyone else concerned? What should be done? Who should do it?
It's a centuries-old problem, and I'm not sure we can do much about it. For more on this subject please see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12-hour_clock> (not that it is infallible either...).