How to Convert Military Time to Regular Time

Learning how to convert military time to regular time is pretty simple. To convert military time to regular time, all you need to know is that instead of changing over from AM to PM at noon and starting over with the number 1, military time simply numbers every hour from zero (midnight) to twenty-three (11 pm).

So, how do you convert military time to regular time? The conversion is a matter of considering “midnight” as hour 0000 in military time; noon is 1200 hours. All other hours can be calculated by counting how far away they are from these two numbers. 

For example, 5:00 AM takes place five hours after midnight. Therefore, in military time 5:00 AM is expressed as 0500 (five hours past 0000). 5:00 PM, on the other hand, takes place 17 hours after midnight (midnight to five am is five hours; five am to five pm is 12 hours, which totals 17). Therefore, 5:00 PM in military time is 1700 hours. 

Minutes are expressed the same in military time as they are in regular time. 5:30 PM, for example, would be 1730 (17 hours, 30 minutes past the hour). 

Some military time keeping considers midnight to be 2400, rather than 0000, but the standard is to consider midnight the beginning of a new day and thus 0000. 

Who Uses Military Time?

Military time is used by police, firemen, and many other official organizations aside from just the military. Its primary reason for usage is clarity. Messages cannot be misunderstood based on the lack of an AM or PM clarification, and the universality of the recording system makes it so that anyone can understand what is being expressed.