Re: The Millenium

[Zach Wolff <zachary_wolff@YAHOO.COM>]

---"William J. Larson" <Bill_Larson@COMPUSERVE.COM> wrote:

> Are you kidding?  There will be NO, repeat NO, celebrations on =
>
> Jan 1 2001 except by eggheads like the ones on this list.


I'm a bit of an egghead myself, but I'm also an 18-year-old college
freshman and all my friends (and the rest of the college students I
know) plan to party raucously on Jan 1, 2001.  Of course we plan to
party raucously on Nov 20, 1998.


> The calendar is a human construct.  Millenia are a human construct.


As is all of physics.  The calendar is one human constructed way to
describe the physical phenomena we call time.  All scientific theory
is an equally human constructed way to describe some physical
phenomenon.


> The vast majority of Mankind has decided (without even =
>
> thinking about it) that the Millenium begins Jan 1 2000.  =
>
> If the unwashed masses declare F =3D mv, they are wrong.
> If the unwashed masses declare the Millenium begins =
>
> Jan 1 2000, It does.


I disagree with your populist approach to time demarcation and elitist
approach to physics.  More than a fifth of the world's population
(China) doesn't think the current year is anywhere near 2000.  Much
more than this portion of the world's population has no idea what F,
m, and v stand for.  The situation in itself doesn't make the expert
or popular opinion superior to the other.  It is the testability of
physics theory with measurable physical phenomena that gives us our
claim to superiority.


> The first Centrury had 99 years.  Problem solved.


You've solved the problem by destroying the definition of a century as
a period of 100 consecutive years.


> OR the First Century started in -1 AD.  Problem solved.


The full name for the time period being discussed is the first century
anno domini (pardon my Latin spelling), in the year of our Lord.  -1
AD (or the year before Christ's birth) is not "in the year of our Lord."

> OR the First Century started in zero AD which is also called 1 BC. =


Zero AD or 1 BC cannot be included in the first century AD for the
reason given immediately above.


> Problem solved.  Spend your energy trying to explain =
>
> science to the masses.  This is not science.  It is culture.


I know it's a physics list-serve, but what use is any form of
communication if we can't discuss culture?  More importantly, I think
this is a semantic issue, not a cultural one.  All communication must
include some discussion of semantics, as it is a fundamental part of
communication itself.


> Bill Larson
> Geneva

Best,
Zach Wolff
University of Arizona
_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com