science

Thai six-hour clock

Thai six-hour clock is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Thai six-hour clock rather than just read about it. In short: The six-hour clock (Thai: นาฬิกาหกชั่วโมง) is a traditional timekeeping system used in the Thai and formerly the Lao language and the Khmer language, alongside the official 24-hour clock. Like other common systems, it counts twenty-four hours in a day, but it divides the day into four quarters, counting six hours in each.

Key takeaways

Thai six-hour clock belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Thai six-hour clock to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Thai six-hour clock from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The six-hour clock (Thai: นาฬิกาหกชั่วโมง) is a traditional timekeeping system used in the Thai and formerly the Lao language and the Khmer language, alongside the official 24-hour clock. Like other common systems, it counts twenty-four hours in a day, but it divides the day into four quarters, counting six hours in each. The hours in each quarter (with the exception of the sixth hour in each quarter) are told with period-designating words or phrases, which are:

... mong chao (Thai: ...โมงเช้า, [mōːŋ tɕʰáːw]) for the first half of daytime (07:00 to 12:59) Bai ... mong (บ่าย...โมง, [bàːj mōːŋ]) for the second half of daytime (13:00 to 18:59) ... thum (...ทุ่ม, [tʰûm]) for the first half of nighttime (19:00 to 00:59) Ti ... (ตี..., [tīː]) for the second half of nighttime (01:00 to 06:59) These terms are thought to have originated from the sounds of traditional timekeeping devices. The gong was used to announce the hours in daytime, and the drum at night. Hence the terms mong, an onomatopoeia of the sound of the gong, and thum, that of the sound of the drum. Ti is a verb meaning to hit or strike, and is presumed to have originated from the act of striking the timekeeping device itself. Chao and bai translate as morning and afternoon respectively, and help to differentiate the two daytime quarters. The sixth hours of each quarter are told by a different set of terms. The sixth hour at dawn is called yam rung (ย่ำรุ่ง, [jâm rûŋ]), and the sixth hour at dusk is called yam kham (ย่ำค่ำ, [jâm kʰâm]), both references to the act of striking the gong or drum in succession to announce the turning of day (yam), where rung and kham, meaning dawn and dusk, denote the time of these occurrences. The midday and midnight hours are respectively known as thiang (เที่ยง, [tʰîaŋ], or thiang wan, เที่ยงวัน, [tʰîaŋ wān]) and thiang khuen (เที่ยงคืน, tʰîaŋ kʰɯ̄ːn), both of which literally translate as midday and midnight. Midnight is also called song yam (สองยาม, [sɔ̌ːŋ jāːm]; note that yam is a different word), a reference to the end of the second three-hour period of the night watch (song translates as the number two). In addition, hok (6) thum and ti hok may also be used to refer to the hours of midnight and dawn, following general usage for the other hours, although more rarely; and the fourth to sixth hours of the second daytime half may also be told as ...mong yen (...โมงเย็น, [mōːŋ jēn]), yen meaning evening. The system has been used in some form since the days of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, but was codified similarly to its present form only in 1901 by King Chulalongkorn in Royal Gazette 17:206. Nowadays, it is used only in colloquial speech. However, a corrupted form of the six-hour clock is more frequently encountered, where usually the first half of daytime (including the sixth hour of the preceding quarter) is counted as in the twelve-hour clock, i.e. hok (6) mong chao, chet (7) mong, etc., up to sip et (11) mong. The six-hour clock system was abolished in Laos and Cambodia during the French protectorate, and the French 24-hour clock system (for example, 3h00) has been used since.

Clock format A comparison of the systems is as follows:

* The word chao (เช้า) is optional here since the numbers 7 to 11 are not used elsewhere ** Conversationally, si mong yen (สี่โมงเย็น) and ha mong yen (ห้าโมงเย็น) are also spoken if considered as evening

See also 12-hour clock 24-hour clock Date and time notation in Thailand The Italian six-hour clock, another six-hour system. Thai calendars, including the Thai solar calendar Thai numerals Time in Thailand

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thai six-hour clock

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thai six-hour clock claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Thai six-hour clock before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Thai six-hour clock ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Thai six-hour clock

In research: Thai six-hour clock appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Thai six-hour clock in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Thai six-hour clock is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Culture of Thailand, Date and time representation, Time measurement systems, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thai six-hour clock outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Thai six-hour clock in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Thai six-hour clock means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Thai six-hour clock out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Thai six-hour clock in simple terms?

Why does Thai six-hour clock matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Thai six-hour clock?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Thai six-hour clock.