Posted on 12/31/2009 2:36:00 PM PST by La Enchiladita
As we approach the end of the year 2009, we are seeing a repeat of the innumeracy that was so prevalent as we came to the end of 1999.
To wit, the first of January 2010 is not the first day of a new decade, but the first day of the last year of the first decade of the 21st century, which began Jan. 1, 2001.
Ours is a decimal system, based on the numbers 1 through 10, and when you count things – be they apples, fingers, cars or years – you begin with 1.
This is because if you don’t have at least one, you have nothing to count. Calling 2009 the end of the decade is akin to telling a child to count his fingers as follows, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and telling him: “You have 10 fingers.”
As final emphasis, in our decimal system any number ending in zero is the final number in a group of 10. A number ending in two zeroes is the final number in a group of a hundred, whilst three zeroes is the last in a group of a thousand, etc.
Why is this hard for otherwise intelligent people to grasp?
Oh, and in passing, saying that “most people think this is the end of the decade” is of no import whatsoever. Numbers, arithmetic, mathematics is not subject to “what people think.”
A decade is any 10 years, this clown is wrong!!!
You would be correct......
Wrong. The first year is ONE, not zero. Think, Man. sd
This is dumb.
A person is 1 year old when they’ve put 12 months behind them.
A person is 10 years old when they’ve completed 10 years.
2010 is 10 years after 2000. And I’m going to consider it to end of one decade, and the beginning of another.
Is it possible to get one or more before none?
I heard Dr. Williams say “It’s not a new decade! The new decade — the second of the second millennium — does not start until 365 days from today.”
I didn’t hear his discussion with the caller.
I agree with you and that is what I said in different words.
But now, I am worried about that week between his birth and what we call the start of the year. Why don’t his birthday and the new year coincide?
Anno Domini (A.D.) The Christian era, begins with A.D. 1 in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Presumed to be the birth year of Christ for the purposes of those calendars. The date was not correct.
A.D. is now a politcally incorrect term, you could probably get arrested for using it in some progressive countries. C.E. is now used, the Common Era - no God involved don’t you see. BC becomes BCE, before common era, so much more inclusive, non threatning, and fitting with the goals of multiculturalism and diversity. You’ll learn this in reeducation camp.
Okay, I meant time elapsed from 0 A.D. through the END of 1 A.D.
Maybe we could go to the lunar calendar and really screw things up for counting.... lol.
Some column headings will have mm/dd/ccyy to indicate for you to enter the 4 digit year which should properly be yyyy not ccyy. The line of thinking is cc=20 yy=09 when actually it’s the 21st century.
ccyy = 2109 (as of 12/31/2009)
yyyy = 2009 (as of 12/21/2009)
I think the “powers that be” didn’t really care much about declarations of decades and centuries and stuff like that. Chunk up history into blocks is something a people with a lifestyle of luxury get to do, subsistence farmers tend to be a little too busy staying alive to care what decade it is and why.
From a cultural standpoint, the eighties were Reagan’s decade, so his inauguration day was the key date.
The first decade of the 21st century began at 8:46am on September 11, 2001. The attacks have defined the decade.
From a purely math standpoint, the next decade begins on the first day of the year 2011, but from a cultural standpoint, the decade really begins on a critical moment that will end up defining the decade.
You scored nil.
I think that is why the disconnect happened. If we had waited until the official start of the millennium to complete the changes there would be a lot of things that didn't work quite right. And I think that is where all this trouble started.
So don’t call it a decade. It’s the time when, for the next ten years the date will end with 201_.
Call it whatever you want. the odometer is turning over.
Happy New Year.
To me, when Jesus was 6 months old, it was .5 A.D. Something starts when it starts and that's usually from zero or nothing to something.
Of course, I'm a computer science person and we start stuff with 0's. *shrug* People shouldn't get so worked up about such stuff, we have other things to worry about.
Thanks for a little truth telling. Even I know that the new decade doesn’t start tomorrow. That makes me smarter that most of the idiots on TV today!
Why yes, I believe I was. :)
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