What is the formula to convert military time to regular time?

When speaking with people from different occupations, you may come across a time format that you are unfamiliar with - military time. Military time (or 24-hour time) is the system of telling the time using numbers from 0 to 23 similar to 12-hour time, but without a colon or a full stop. This system is used in many countries and by the military, and often leaves people scratching their heads about how to convert it into regular, civil use times. Fortunately, it's not as complicated as it may seem on the surface.

In order to convert military time, all you need is a simple formula and some math skills that most grade school students will have acquired prior by fourth or fifth grade. The formula for converting 24-hour (military) time into 12-hour (standard) time looks like this:

Take any given 24-hour military time and subtract 1200 if the number is greater than 1200; if not then there's no need.

Then divide that new number by 100 and add a colon in between the first two digits.

For example if you had the number 1750 (military), you would subtract 1200 leaving 550 (550/100=5:50).

Thus making 5:50 PM standard.

Alternatively, if you were attempting to convert 1330 (1330/100=13:30). Making 13:30 PM standard.

You can also reverse this process for figuring out 24-hour times when you've only been given 12-hour times by multiplying the hour part by 100 then adding 1200 whenever needed depending on whether it's AM or PM.

For example; if presented with a 3PM civil clock, simply multiply 3*100=300 then add 1200 since it's PM making 1500 military standard. The same logic applies for other times such as 5AM which would be 500 Standard Time.

However when trying to calculate 2300 standard make sure not to confuse 2300 with 11PM civil since they are both 23 hours in each respective format! But 11PM multiplied by 100 equals 1100 which is then needlessly added with 1200 making '2300' 2400 instead which changes everything! So watch out for this curveball at night!

See more about military time chart