🧠 😆 Possible Interesting (or totally boring) Wordplay/Mathplay/Timeplay for those who enjoy it

[fonthaunt]

Ok, so, remember that some regions are strange and use 12h time, including mine! (I know that many countries are on a 24h clock, which would resolve the issue.) So, here is your wordplay time-riddle of a sort. This is the sentence on my local city watering page. It looks pretty straightforward until you start thinking through it.

My watering “days” are supposed to be Monday and Thursday. (Watering=Irrigation.) Here are the rules:

Irrigate only between the hours of midnight to 10 a.m. and from 6 p.m. to midnight on assigned days

So, what days can I water?

P.S. This is not made up - this is really the rules in my city. I read the rule several times over and found some problems with it, depending on interpretation. 😛

[misscrystal]

I’ve never heard of 12 hour time. I thought all days were 24 hours.

Sunday night to Monday morning, and Thursday? It sounds like they want to write a lot of violation fines.

[fonthaunt]

I’ve never heard of 12 hour time. I thought all days were 24 hours.

Sunday night to Monday morning, and Thursday? It sounds like they want to write a lot of violation fines.

The USA military and many countries go by a 24h clock since all days are 24 hour days. That way there is no confusion. You wouldn’t want to tell a guy that the missile drops at 12:15 Saturday night and he’s sleep deprived and misunderstands what day it is. Civilians here measure time from noon to midnight and it can definitely be confusing. :crazy: That’s why I found the rule funny, especially since the clauses are written in a confusion way as well.

[misscrystal]

The USA military and many countries go by a 24h clock since all days are 24 hour days. That way there is no confusion. You wouldn’t want to tell a guy that the missile drops at 12:15 Saturday night and he’s sleep deprived and misunderstands what day it is. Civilians here measure time from noon to midnight and it can definitely be confusing. :crazy: That’s why I found the rule funny, especially since the clauses are written in a confusion way as well.

If there are fines involved they probably deliberately want people to be confused, if where you live is like where I live.

[fonthaunt]

If there are fines involved they probably deliberately want people to be confused, if where you live is like where I live.

Could be, though in general it really isn’t like that here overall. I think where you live is a lot different. They are pretty easygoing here. I was just trying to read the sentence myself and realized how funny it was, at least to me.

[nikavoice]

The rules sounds hokey pokey. I operate on a 24-hours system.

Hmm, since watering 💦

Yikes! I’m happy we don’t have a water restriction in my neck of the woods.

[fonthaunt]

The rules sounds hokey pokey. I operate on a 24-hours system.

Hmm, since watering 💦

Yikes! I’m happy we don’t have a water restriction in my neck of the woods.

I read it as 6PM to 10AM instead of midnight to midnight, but it still leaves the actually days somewhat questionable. If you are watering from 6PM to midnight on Monday but you can also water midnight to 10AM Monday, do they really mean after midnight on Monday (which is really Tuesday) or do they MEAN Monday which would have been the night before (Sunday)?

Oh yeah, note, I do know why we have the restrictions here. Right now it hasn’t really rained in weeks, so we are genuinely in danger on things like drinking water, much less lawn watering. However, back to the point, which is the weird way the rules are written!

[misscrystal]

I read it as 6PM to 10AM instead of midnight to midnight, but it still leaves the actually days somewhat questionable. If you are watering from 6PM to midnight on Monday but you can also water midnight to 10AM Monday, do they really mean after midnight on Monday (which is really Tuesday) or do they MEAN Monday which would have been the night before (Sunday)?

Oh yeah, note, I do know why we have the restrictions here. Right now it hasn’t really rained in weeks, so we are genuinely in danger on things like drinking water, much less lawn watering. However, back to the point, which is the weird way the rules are written!

It sounds like the person who wrote that was either very confused, or doesn’t know how to communicate well.

[fonthaunt]

It sounds like the person who wrote that was either very confused, or doesn’t know how to communicate well.

It’s actually not that easy to express, even if you write it different. Since it carries overnight, you’d have to be pretty precise and write several sentences to be perfect about it. Still funny, IMO.

[thecreativeguys]

Ok, so, remember that some regions are strange and use 12h time, including mine! (I know that many countries are on a 24h clock, which would resolve the issue.) So, here is your wordplay time-riddle of a sort. This is the sentence on my local city watering page. It looks pretty straightforward until you start thinking through it.

My watering “days” are supposed to be Monday and Thursday. (Watering=Irrigation.) Here are the rules:

Irrigate only between the hours of midnight to 10 a.m. and from 6 p.m. to midnight on assigned days

So, what days can I water?

P.S. This is not made up - this is really the rules in my city. I read the rule several times over and found some problems with it, depending on interpretation. 😛

(monday) 12am - 10am … 6pm - 12am

The way I read it:

11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm are off limits on the days on MONDAY and THURSDAY

You may water your garden on MONDAY and THURSDAY at the following times:

12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am

Refrain from watering again until 6pm - 12am.

And watering is off limits to any other day.

I’m confusing myself

[fonthaunt]

(monday) 12am - 10am … 6pm - 12am

The way I read it:

11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm are off limits on the days on MONDAY and THURSDAY

You may water your garden on MONDAY and THURSDAY at the following times:

12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am

Refrain from watering again until 6pm - 12am.

And watering is off limits to any other day.

I’m confusing myself

You may water your garden on MONDAY and THURSDAY at the following times:

12am 1am

So would this start at 12am just after 11:59 on Sunday and Wednesday? OR, would this start just after 11.59PM ON Monday and Thursday “nights”?

I think that if you read it literally, it would mean Sunday and Wednesday but I suspect that they didn’t meant for us to shut off automatic watering systems at 11:59 on Mondays, I think they meant for us to understand we could continue to run them when we wished up to 10AM the next day. (I’m not actually sure, though.) Note, there is a limit to how many gallons you can use, so no one would think it meant they could just swamp their property all night long, but that they could perhaps water for a period anytime in the night or early morning.

" I suspect that they didn’t meant for us to shut off automatic watering systems at 11:59 on Mondays, I think they meant for us to understand we could continue to run them when we wished up to 10AM the next day." (Tuesday)

Of course, MY personal watering days are Monday and Thursday, so if I watered from 9AM-10AM on Tuesday, I would theoretically be breaking the rules by following the instructions the way I described it.

Heh, this isn’t my city but it’s the same issue:

. http://www.newswest9.com/story/14382944/new-water-restrictions-causing-confusion

[misscrystal]

The best thing they could have done would be to make a chart showing the seven days of the week with hours for each day, with a bar graph showing watering times.

[miiila]

Ingenious solution for the 12/24 dilemma: