The first shi originally ran from 11 pm to 1 am but was reckoned as starting at midnight by the time of the History of Song, compiled during the early Yuan. These apparently began to be used during the Eastern Han that preceded the Three Kingdoms era, but the sections that would have covered them are missing from their official histories; they first appear in official use in the Tang-era Book of Sui. Variations of all these units were subsequently adopted by Japan and the other countries of the Sinosphere. The 12 shi supposedly began to be divided into 24 hours under the Tang, although they are first attested in the Ming-era Book of Yuan. In that work, the hours were known by the same earthly branches as the shi, with the first half noted as its "starting" and the second as "completed" or "proper" shi. In modern China, these are instead simply numbered and described as "little shi". The modern ke is now used to count quarter-hours, rather than a separate unit. As with the Egyptian night and daytime hours, the division of the day into twelve shi has been credited to the example set by the rough number of lunar cycles in a solar year, although the 12-year Jovian orbital cycle was more important to traditional Chinese and Babylonian reckoning of the zodiac. Southeast Asia
In Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, the traditional system of noting hours is the six-hour clock.
Derived measures
air changes per hour (ACH), a measure of the replacements of air within a defined space used for indoor air quality
ampere hour (Ah), a measure of electrical charge used in electrochemistry
BTU-hour, a measure of power used in the power industry and for air conditioners and heaters
credit hour, a measure of an academic courses contracted instructional time per week for a semester
horsepower-hour (hph), a measure of energy used in the railroad industry
hour angle, a measure of the angle between the meridian plane and the hour circle passing through a certain point used in the equatorial coordinate system
kilometres per hour (km/h), a measure of land speed
kilowatt-hour (kWh), a measure of energy commonly used as an electrical billing unit
knot (kn), a measure of nautical miles per hour, used for maritime and aerial speed
man-hour, the amount of work performed by the average worker in one hour, used in productivity analysis
metre per hour (m/h), a measure of slow speeds
mile per hour (mph), a measure of land speed
passengers per hour per direction (p/h/d), a measure of the capacity of public transportation systems
pound per hour (PPH), a measure of mass flow used for engines fuel flow
work or working hour, a measure of working time used in various regulations, such as those distinguishing part- and full-time employment and those limiting truck drivers working hours or hours of service

See also
Liturgy of the Hours
Horology
Horae, the deified hours of ancient Greece and Rome
Hexadecimal hour, a proposed unit lasting 1 h 30 min
Decimal hour or deciday, a French Revolutionary unit lasting 2 h 24 min
Golden Hour & Blue Hour in photography
Metric time

Notes
References
Bibliography
Further reading
Gerhard Dohrn-van Rossum (1996).