Military Time Uses a 24-hour clock Standard time uses a 12 hour clock Military Minutes Regular and military time use the same number of minutes per hour and they use minutes in exactly the same way. Military minutes do not exist and there is is no need to convert minutes when going back and forth between the two time systems. People occasionally encounter time written in a format that appears to use minutes larger than 59 (for example 7:82 or 7.82). Time written in this manner is being expressed in decimal hours (hours and hundredths of hours), not military time. Converting from decimal hours to hours and minutes is a different issue than converting between regular and military time. Midnight The question sometimes arises whether midnight is written as 2400 or Military and emergency services personnel refer to midnight both ways. However, digital watches and clocks that display time in a 24-hour format and computer equipment treat midnight as the start of a new day and express it as Writing Military Time Different professions and types of organizations write military time differently. The military, emergency services and hospitals usually write military time as hours and minutes without a colon and often add the word "hours" afterward. The format is: hoursminutes Example: 1331 or 1331 hours When expressing time down to the second, they insert a colon between the minutes and seconds using the format hoursminutes:seconds Example: 1331:42 or 13:31:42 hours In science and engineering, colons are usually inserted between the hours, minutes, and seconds. The formats used to express time are: hours:minutes Example: 13:31 and hours:minutes:seconds Example: 13:31:42