I was wondering whether to put this in pedant's corner, but as it's ramifications are a bit more serious than just idle curiosity.....
The DVLA have just written to me saying that my licence expires at midnight on 24.2.15. That begs the question is midnight the end of a day or the beginning of a day. It seems to me that midnight is at the beginning of the day because the clock should go:
11:59:59
00:00:00
00:00:01
and not:
11:59:59
24:00:00
00:00:01
But somehow I don't think that's what most drivers will choose to assume.
It appears that the NIST haven't really made up their minds either.
And according to Wiki, neither have the ISO: "Midnight is a special case and may be referred to as either "00:00" or "24:00". The notation "00:00" is used at the beginning of a calendar day and is the more frequently used. At the end of a day use "24:00". "2007-04-05T24:00" is the same instant as "2007-04-06T00:00""
It makes me wonder what the ISO is for if it's not to prevent ambiguity and confusion, but then, I also think that it's a shame that the decimal clock didn't survive instead of being lumbered with a messy sexagiesimal system.
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