The Weekly Gripe

Year 200 start of the new millennium?
Did the new millennium really start in 2000?

Does it start from 0 or 1?

If you are one of the many, that believe that 2000 was the start of a new millennium AD or that getting to 2010 enters us into a new decade, then where is the year 0 (zero)?



The notion that getting to the year 2000 was the start of a new millennium or that getting to 2010 enters us into a new decade, are both a bunch of badly counted grapes. Isn't time normally counted from zero?

Add your comments to this discussion

Please be sure to read the article before joining this moderated forum. No user registration is required to post comments.



Posted Comment Visitor
15-4-2010 princeps, this was probably because people in those days (at least those who wrote in the newspapers) were educated and knew which was correct. The ones who were uneducated knew that the papers were right.grumpyoldwoman
15-4-2010 It's strange that we so easily adopted 2000 as the millennium.No such mistakes were made by the Victorians at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.If you look online at newspaper editorials such as The Times they clearly celebrated January 1st 1901as the start of the new century,not 1900 as no doubt we would..They rightly considered the year 1900 (all of it) as being the final year of the Nineteenth Century.princeps
22-3-2010 Who's the idiot who said People in the early centuries didn’t have the same tools to count and record dates as we do "People in the early centuries didn’t have the same tools to count and record dates as we do" What a prat. I would suggest he read the Rhind Papyrus. And Erastothenes. And Babylonian calendrical calculations. That they asked where the Julian calendar came from. And who was Julius Caesar after whom it is named. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendarIdes of March has past
22-3-2010 Does this mean I'm going to miss my hair appointment? I don't know whether to leave now or next year. I wish I hadn't read this, life just got so much more complicated. People like Kryton are just trying to make the world a worse place to live, makes me mad. No wonder they're always running out of stuff in Sainsbury's it just makes me mad. It's not Sainsbury's fault, especially if British Airways freight are always on strike and not delivering. I was in there yesterday and there was a customer really getting hot-tempered, all because they'd run out of HP sauce in glass bottles. I expect he needs to get a job because if this is all he's got to worry about....Dear me!
12-1-2010 I challenge anyone to attempt write the value of 0 AD in Roman numerals. It cannot be done.Caesar Augustus
11-1-2010 The earth was around for billions of years before some bipedal species decided to institutionalise a way to count a notion they called “time”. Year 1 (or Year 0, for all that matters) was completely arbitrary. Year 1 is likely not year 0. It’s more likely to be many, many years later, in fact. Because after the creation of a working calendar (year 0), it probably took many years before it got accepted in a large enough area that it managed to reach us to this day. So year 1 is more likely to be Year 35 after the creation of the calendar. Or even Year 150. Who knows? People in the early centuries didn’t have the same tools to count and record dates as we do now. And even if they did, what is to say we got all the records? It’s likely that we are missing a few years here and there. They weren’t using our modern 365 day calendar either. And let’s not start on the Leap Years. This is a modern concept. It means that for centuries, we had missing days. That amounts to over a year. So really, our current date is meaningless. It only serves a purpose to facilitate people living in a society. All the effect the new millennium had, was to create havoc with our time-keeping tools (computers) which were not set up to accept 4 digits. There is no other significance to 2000. Nor to 2001 for that matter. But hey! It’s nice to have a celebration about *something*!Als
11-1-2010 The number zero had not been invented at the beginning of the present era. The concept of zero as a number is attributed to India during the 9th century CE. It did not reach Europe till the 11th century. There was no 0 AD. The first year was 1 AD. The year before it was 1 bc.The Count
10-1-2010 Does anyone actually give a s**t?! This guy must be a right laugh on a night out on the pop....Kryton needs to get laid
09-1-2010 I don't know the answer because I don't know what the count of the years started at: 0 or 1. I prefer formats like the 24-hour clock since it goes from 0 to 59 and 0 to 23. I always start at 0 where practical.jR Maths
09-1-2010 The only reason - in my opinion - the millennium was celebrated on 1 January 2000 was because the first digit of the four year numbers moved from a '1' to a '2' I am in total agreement with those who say that to complete the 1000 years the millennium commenced on 1 January 2001, just as the new decade will commence on 1 January 2011.CL
08-1-2010 zero is not a natural number: zero is not a cardinal number. when counting I begin 1 .. 2 .. 3 ... there was never a 0 anno domini.Counter Reformation
08-1-2010 This is not something that I worry about but I do agree. The new millennium started 1st January 2001 not 1st January 2000. The new decade starts at the beginning of NEXT year not this year.noname

Your Ad Here

<< prev <<     >> next >>