Lesson
You may already know that there are $24$24 hours in a day but clocks only go to $12$12. Why? Well, for one thing, we would need a very big clock to fit $24$24 numbers around it! People also worked out a long time ago that they could split the days into two lots of $12$12 hours and just make note of whether it was morning or afternoon. Let's learn more about this now.
Remember!

AM means "before midday" and PM means "after midday."

Examples

question 1

Choose whether these activities normally happen in the AM or PM.

  1. Going to bed.

    AM

    A

    PM

    B
  2. Eating breakfast.

    AM

    A

    PM

    B
  3. Watching the sun rise.

    AM

    A

    PM

    B

question 2

James went to a movie at $11:50$11:50 am. The movie went for $1$1 hour and $10$10 minutes.

  1. Would the movie finish in the am or pm?

    am

    A

    pm

    B
  2. Complete the statement:

    The movie finishes at $\editable{}$$:$:$\editable{}$$\editable{}$ pm.

question 3

Valentina starts work at $7$7 am and finishes work at $5:30$5:30 in the evening.

  1. Complete the statement:

    Valentina is at work for $\editable{}$ hours and $\editable{}$ minutes.

 

How about some LATIN!

The abbreviation AM, comes from the latin "ante meridiem" which means before midday and the abbreviation PM comes from the latin "post merideim", meaning after midday. 

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