Why use Military Time Instead of 12:00 AM?
Military time was created to minimize confusion when telling the time. It helps to clearly distinguish between 12:00 am and 12:00 pm. For example if a meeting begins at 12:00 it’s not immediately clear whether that means 12:00 am or 12:00 pm.
How to Convert 12:00 AM to Military Time
1. Determine if 12:00 am is before or after midday
We can tell this by looking at whether the time is followed by am or pm. A.M. is an abbrevation of ante meridiem, which is Latin for before midday. That means 12:00 am is before midday.
2. Calculate the hours and minutes since midnight
Before we can convert to military time we need to know how much time has passed since midnight. At 12:00 am we know it is 0 hours and 0 minutes since midnight.
3. Convert hours to military time
12:00 am is before midday so we simply take our hours since midnight (0) and add a leading zero because we need two digits for military hours.
4. Combine the hours and the minutes
The military time in minutes is the number of minutes calculated in step two which is 0, and then converted to two digits, 00. Military time is given as four digits with the hours first, so the military time for 12:00 am is 0000.
What Time is 12:00 AM in Military Time?
The military time for 12:00 am is 0000. In some situations you may also need to state the military time zone. If you are stating the time in your local time zone the full military time for 12:00 am would be 0000J (J for Juliet). More commonly the time is quoted as 0000Z (Z for Zulu) which indicates 12:00 am in the UTC time zone.
How do you say 12:00 AM in Military Time?
When you are saying 12:00 am in military time you should state the digits 0000 as zero hundred hours. In some cases it is not necessary to finish the message with hours. If it is recommend to observe a military time zone you might say 0000Z as zero hundred hours Zulu time or simply zero hundred Zulu.