Derek Samrt wrote:
Subsequently, the 1st decade of the 20th century is 2001 AD to
2010 AD (12-31-2010 to be exact).

Of course, you meant 21st century, right?

In summary, it is that in what we regard as our Year Zero, other cultures were using a different calendar. For them it was Year N. But as far as we are concerned, it was Year Zero. Their calendar maps to our calendar in a similar way to the Kelvin scale maps to Celsius, That there is a Year Zero is as straightforwardly true as there is a Zero Celsius. Likewise, another calendar might choose to place a Year Zero at our 1979, 2012, or any other year.

Year Zero exists just as much as Year One exists, not just theoretically, but in reality. People lived, the world existed in Year Zero – the world didn’t go from Year -1 to Year 1.

Therefore to choose Year 1 as a year to celebrate is as arbitrary as to choose Year 0, since both did exist.

Another argument for it is that nobody probably used AD until well after Year 1, so that, again, Year 1 didn’t exist at the time as a “recorded date”, just as Year 0 didn’t.

Erm….. maybe.

So, no Sally, there was no year zero. Now take off that tinfoil hat.

Please don’t teach this rubbish to your children. If you already have, then might I suggest therapy?

ABSOLUTELY there was a year zero, there was a day zero, there was an hour zero, there was a second zero. It is a point in time that can be measured back from today and is based on numeric systems commonly in use in the world. If you commonly reference specific times and dates when speaking to people, you are acknowledging this system of measuring time. Figuring out when year zero occurred is simple subtraction.

NO ONE in the world at that time would have called it year zero, precisely because this was not the calendar system in place at the time. No one started measuring time from the point zero until much later, and the systems people used for measuing time in the day are completely irrelevant. But the start of a decade has nothing to do with where you start counting, it has to do with the basic rules of mathematics.

These rants about the idea there was no year zero, that decades are measured at point one, etc are ignorant and obnoxious. They are based on a complete lack of understanding of what a calendar is, and even young children are able to make sense of the question you seem to be struggling with. Please realize the same way you get all frustrated with people for using commonly understood math terms, other people get frustrated with creepy morons who mouth off about their ignorance as if it made sense.

It’s your blog and you can say whatever you want, think about what your words say about you before you post.

M

Count your fingers. Which number did you start with? Which number did you end with? Extrapolate.

Whatever the (rather obvious… but thanks) case for 2011 being the correct start of the new decade, it can’t be denied that 2010 has a more pleasant, well, feng shui to it.

Celebrating the year (n*10 + 1) for the rest of eternity just because for the first decade they forgot to use the year zero, is a bit like an immortal entity deciding to drink the same infinite cup of tea for the rest of time, even though it went cold in the year 11 AD.

Or something?