What is 5:45 in military time?

Years before the advent of digital clocks, military personnel were used to telling time according to a 24-hour system instead of the conventional 12-hour AM/PM system. This was an important part of military operations and remains so to this day. But how do you decipher military time?

To begin with, it is important to note that in the military 24-hour clock, midnight is 00:00 rather than 12:00 AM. This means that 5:45 PM would be written as 17:45 or 1700 hours.

In the 24-hour clock, hours after midday are represented by a number from 13-23 instead of from 1-12, which marks the hours leading up to midday. For example, 5PM would be represented by 17 in a 24-hour clock and 45 minutes later, at 5:45 PM, would be referred to as 17:45 or 1700 hours.

At night, times are just adjusted accordingly in an analogous way. For example 12AM (midnight) would be written as 00; 2AM would be written as 02; 4AM would be written as 04; and so on until midday when it will reach 12PM (noon) which is referred to as 1200 hours. So at 5:45 AM (in the morning) the military time representation is 05:45 or 0500 hours.

Knowing this system will help you make sense of what feels like a complicated process for some people who first learn about it. However, once you understand how the system works it makes sense as a practical tool for coordinating people in different time zones without confusion about whether we are talking AM or PM times. It's also helpful for emergency services who don't necessarily have time to double check if they are interpreting "five thirty-five" correctly when every minute counts.

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