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.”
Just for fun, listen to Dr. Walter Williams on the topic.
Centuries certainly run 100 years, counting the first century is 1-100, the second century is 101-200, etc.
We tend to refer to decades as the fifties, the sixties, the seventies, etc. The decade of ‘the fifties’ is the ten year period of 1950-1959. The sixties is 1960-1969. I don’t think people consider 1970 as the final year of ‘the sixties,’ but rather the first year of the decade known as ‘the seventies.’
The first decade of the 1000 years beginning with a 2 started in 2000. Yu can explain it your way all you want or you can go with what the world knows and uses.
No, it's the opposite. Your first year would be Year One, and when you turned 1, your first year would be over, and you would be in Year Two, and so on.
When you turned 49, you would be in Year Fifty, and you would say, "I'm in my fiftieth year," instead of saying, "I'm 49".
People are going to forever be in two camps about this, like fruitcake lovers vs. fruitcake haters, toomayto vs. tomahto, etc.....:-)
Happy New Year!!
Happy New Year, Canedawgie!!:)
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