Our reliance on math to make time understandable is signaled in elaborate schemes we use in reflexive ways to talk about time experiences. These schemes especially help us deal with and understand varying social and work related contexts.

In mathematics, we broadly use different bases to deal with different "contexts." As a result, solutions to equations can change depending upon which context is used. For example, calculate the answers to the following problems:

9 + 4 =

1. 11

2. 5

9pm + 4 hrs =

1. 1 pm

2. 1 am

To understand our temporal reality we need to know what context is relevant to our situations. For exampe, the fact that time is calculated using a base of twelve within a twenty-four-hour day is signaled in our language. "Pm" and "am" indicate to a speaker a specific context within which to calculate a solution to the problem.

Thus whenever twelve hours have passed, the base returns to zero and we begin to count anew. If you ask a person who knows that it is nine pm what time it will be in four hours, they reflexively add four hours to nine, but within a base of twenty-four that is divided into two segments of twelve. Their response will be "one," and there is no confusion. Our temporal reality is visually represented in the dial of a clock:

For some organizations the accuracy of time within the entire twenty-four-hour framework of the day is of critical importance. Thus organizations such as the Military, and airline and railroad companies, use an absolute base of twenty-four hours to measure time:

Am and pm indicate either after twelve-midnight (am) or after twelve-noon (pm). The above addition example (using 9 "pm") was used precisely because it works with both a base of twelve and a base of twenty-four, with regard to calculating time. Utilizing the 24 hour time system alters the equation, but the outcome remains the same:

21 hours (clock time) + 4 hours = "zero-one-hundred hours" or, one o'clock am.

This example shows that those who rely on twenty-four-hour time use a different lexicon for communicating time than the average person does. This is signaled in the terminology employed, such as "zero-one-hundred hours."

Different linguistic markers are thus used to describe time depending upon which system is used. Each gives us exactly the same information, but indicates something about the formality or importance of the situation, and the importance of telling time accurately in given contexts.