What time is it?

As much as things have been turned upside down the past couple of months, it's sometimes nice to have a "lively debate". 1 The recent discussion I participated in revolved around a specific part of a sentence that stated:

"...requirement begins at midnight Friday, July 24..."

Oh... so this begins on Friday.

Nope, the rest of the sentence concluded:

"...so, effectively, Saturday morning, July 25."

I felt that was wrong on so many levels I blurted out my disbelief in front of a couple of peers. 2

One co-worker said, "No wonder Minnesota is so messed up, you can't even tell time!" 3

Breaking down the logic

I turned around, chuckled at his joke, and ask him to clarify what he meant.

Co-Worker: Duh... read it again. It starts at midnight, so of course it starts first thing on Saturday.

Me: Really?

CW: Yeah. Midnight is the end of the day, so midnight Friday is when Saturday starts.

Me: So when I say 'noon', that means 12:00pm, right?

CW: Yep.

Me: So when I say midnight, that must mean 12:00am, right?

CW: (cautiously) Yeah.

Me: So if this begins on Friday at midnight, that means it begins as 12:00am on Friday. So how does this start on Saturday, when 12:00am on Friday is the start of the day?

CW:

The co-worker grabbed their snack and walked out of the break room. 4

  1. Ok, at one point I may have uttered 'Idiot' under my breath. ↩

  2. Mistake number one. ↩

  3. Mistake number two. ↩

  4. Challenging an engineer to a logic discussion... mistake number three. ↩


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