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Pssst! 2010 does not kick off a new decade
Nashua Telegraph ^ | 12/31/09 | W.B. Heffernan Jr.

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.”


TOPICS: History; Science
KEYWORDS: happy2010; notanewdecade
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To: w1andsodidwe

I fail to see why anyone would get worked up about this.


I don’t know why but when I hear people making these kind of errors I go into a fit of rage. It’s outrageous to me that so many get the starts and ends of decades and the turn of a century wrong.

My husband even locks up our guns during decade changes, afraid of what I might do in our neighborhood. He had me committed on New Year’s Eve 1999 while he stayed up all night to see if our computer would crash. Who’s crazy, huh?


61 posted on 12/31/2009 3:45:25 PM PST by Joan Kerrey (The bigger the government = The smaller the people)
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To: La Enchiladita

The author is in denial.

I agree it only seems like it should be about 2003, but no, we are in a new decade and the decade digit is about to flip.

(The author just doesn’t want to admit he’s getting old.)


62 posted on 12/31/2009 3:48:43 PM PST by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
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To: Gene Eric
All I want to know is how many days elapsed between zero time AD and what’s considered to be 1 AD. If zero, then the decade intervals are 1, 11, 21, 31... But if 1 year elapsed between time zero AD and 1 AD, then the decade intervals are 0, 10, 20, 30...

Not even a nano second.

63 posted on 12/31/2009 3:49:14 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (Had God not driven man from the Garden of Eden the Sierra Club surely would have.)
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To: votemout

“The year 2009 ends 10 years of years beginning in 2000. It is the last year of the first decade of the 2000s.”

From 0-1 is one year, from 1-2 is two years......from 8-9 is nine years, from 9-10 is ten years. The new decade begins at the beginning of 2010.

If it were money, one half dollar, another half dollar, then you have one dollar. You don’t start off with one dollar, you start of with a fractions of a dollar.


64 posted on 12/31/2009 3:49:59 PM PST by Lower55
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To: La Enchiladita

Hey, I’m not totally unsympathetic. I’m an editor by trade, so sometimes I feel compelled to call people on grammatical technicalities that 90% of the population wouldn’t care about. (Er... I mean “about which 90% of the population wouldn’t care.”) But I also know there are times when strict adherence to the rules is clumsy, stilted, and generally more trouble than it’s worth. Sometimes an intelligent decision to break the rules is in order. (And who gets to make these damn rules anyway?) I think that’s the general concept here.


65 posted on 12/31/2009 3:51:23 PM PST by FelixFelicis (When can we *change* back? [Get yer bumper sticker at www.cafepress.com/deepright!])
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To: La Enchiladita
With all due respect to Walter Williams, he and this guy are not entirely correct.

When does a year begin? For some it begins on January 1. But a school year begins usually sometime in September. Fiscal years begin almost anytime. The astronomical year begins at the Vernal Equinox (in March).

A decade, a set of ten years, can begin anytime too. So the first decade of the 2000s ends tonight. And the 201st decade since the time reckoned as the birth of Jesus doesn't end for another year.

ML/NJ

66 posted on 12/31/2009 3:51:40 PM PST by ml/nj
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To: BigSkyFreeper; mikrofon

Speaking of the full moon, last night it was mostly obscured by clouds here, but the SETTING moon woke me up a few minutes after 6:00 a.m., at an angle where it was shining in my window directly on my face. By then, the clouds had cleared and it was really BRIGHT.


67 posted on 12/31/2009 3:54:13 PM PST by La Enchiladita (The Light shines in the darkness.)
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To: Gene Eric

There was a “week of Zero” b/w December 24, -1 BC and Jan. 1, 1 AD.....


68 posted on 12/31/2009 3:54:45 PM PST by mikrofon (A reading from the Book of Numbers ;)
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To: La Enchiladita

Yeah, and it’s like another big misconception about the “Blue Moon” being tonight. Actually it won’t be a “Blue Moon” until around November of 2010, and not tonight... :-)

But..., will anyone care to get the facts straight? LOL...


69 posted on 12/31/2009 3:54:45 PM PST by Star Traveler (At Christmas - remember to keep "Christ" in the One-World Government that we look forward to)
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To: Gene Eric
how many days elapsed between zero time AD and what’s considered to be 1 AD

365

70 posted on 12/31/2009 3:55:47 PM PST by La Enchiladita (The Light shines in the darkness.)
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To: La Enchiladita
True, the Romans didn't have a zero. And for the record, the millennium didn't change at midnight 12-31-1999 either.
71 posted on 12/31/2009 3:56:45 PM PST by Hoffer Rand (There ARE two Americas: "God's children" and the tax payers)
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To: freebilly

You learn stuff on FR all the time:-)

I know! We can designate every year ending in ‘0’ as a ‘twilight zone.’

Ready for that?


72 posted on 12/31/2009 3:56:48 PM PST by La Enchiladita (The Light shines in the darkness.)
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To: La Enchiladita

“365 “

Then, the new decade starts tonight.


73 posted on 12/31/2009 3:57:43 PM PST by Lower55
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To: Cvengr

See my post #35.


74 posted on 12/31/2009 3:57:56 PM PST by La Enchiladita (The Light shines in the darkness.)
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To: La Enchiladita

The year 1 A.D. ended one year after the birth of Christ.


What do you call that year that transpired after the birth of Christ?.... He lived and accumalted one year of age month by month. His life began at birth, started at zero, and one later He was one year old. He wasn’t just then starting his first year of life.


75 posted on 12/31/2009 3:58:33 PM PST by deport (62 DAYS UNTIL THE TEXAS PRIMARY....... MARCH 2, 2010)
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To: La Enchiladita

Actually, SyFy Channel shows Twilight Zone marathons around the New Year’s (on right now).


76 posted on 12/31/2009 3:59:28 PM PST by mikrofon (Happy New Year - whatever!)
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To: ml/nj

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....now, you threw a wrench into it.......


77 posted on 12/31/2009 4:00:31 PM PST by La Enchiladita (The Light shines in the darkness.)
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To: deport

“The year 1 A.D. ended one year after the birth of Christ.”

I thought the year 1 A.D. ended one year (A)fter the (D)eath of Christ.


78 posted on 12/31/2009 4:01:39 PM PST by Lower55
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To: La Enchiladita

Did you hear Walter Williams try to enlighten the flatlander who argued against this being the end of decade? We went through this at the turn of 2000.


79 posted on 12/31/2009 4:01:42 PM PST by shotdog (I love my country; it's my government I'm afraid of.)
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To: FelixFelicis

I fought the term ‘normalcy’ for a very long time, and now I don’t care. There is an example for you. I guess there is a rule somewhere that rules get broken all the time, eh?


80 posted on 12/31/2009 4:02:02 PM PST by La Enchiladita (The Light shines in the darkness.)
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