NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: millenium - 2000 or 2001?
From: Roger M. Derby
Date: 1999 Dec 26, 6:24 PM
From: Roger M. Derby
Date: 1999 Dec 26, 6:24 PM
Craig wrote: > > Officially, the new millennium begins Jan 01, 2001, according to the US > Naval Observatory, the OFFICIAL TIMEKEEPER of the US, and the same of the > Official timekeeper in the UK, and also by those that believe it's important > to have 1000 years in a millennium instead of 999. Are you saying that the year 1900 was part of the 19th century? The OFFICIAL TIMEKEEPER of the US is an individual with a nose, a belly button, and an opinion just like everyone else. I really doubt he found the answer thru one of his telescopes. Those of us who had to really analyze number systems in order to design computers have always recognized that one started counting at zero. (Although there was a misguided bunch who had both negative and positive zeroes in their implementations.) There not only wasn't a year zero. There wasn't a year 1000 one millennium ago, even if you allow a couple of years slop. What the celebration is about is the same feeling, on a global scale, that leads the family to lean over the driver's shoulder and cheer as the odometer goes from many nines to an integer followed by a bunch of zeroes. Roger -- http://www.seidata.com/~derbyrm
