Re: Y2K [was: Re: Gravity and pi]
- From: Glenn Knapp <kahuna@VCN.COM>
- Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 06:23:33 -0700
At 02:48 PM 11/19/98 +1100, Brian McInnes wrote:
>Mervin Koehlinger wrote:
>
>>
>>Every century has 100 years.
>
>>
>>Check any dictionary on the subject.
>>
>
>We straying a little from physics here and our field of
>expertise but it is an interesting and useful subject
and,
>dare I say it, something of a dilemma.
>A century is a collection of one hundred (consecutive)
>years. Similarly a decade is a group of ten years.
>Starting from the year 1 A.D. we have a series of
centuries
>called the First Century, the Second Century, ......the
>Nineteenth Century. These Centuries start at the
beginning
>of the year 1 (or 101, or 202,....1901) and end at the
end
>of year 100 (or200, or 300, ...0r 2000). That's all
right
>and proper and those using the argument to claim that
the
>present century (and, by extension, the present
millennium)
>doesn't end until the end of 2001 are on strong ground.
>Yet....
>
>(1) When we refer to decades such as the sixties or the
>seventies, we mean from 1960 to 1969 and 1970 to 1979.
I
>don't hear people saying "At the end of the eights in
1990".
> Why do we use a different yard-stick here?
>
>(2) As far as the person in the street is concerned, the
>main argument above is pedantic and arcane. He or
she
>"knows" that the year 2000 is the start of a new
century;
>that knowledge is reinforced by the point I raise in
(1).
>This is much more immediate than thinking about the
first
>century sarting in the year 1 A.D. rather than 0 A.D.
>
>It going to be interesting to see which set of
>new-century-and-millennium-celebrations are the more
>popular, those on Jan 1 2000 or those on Jan 1 2001.
I
>intend to celebrate both.
>Brian McInnes
I've read all the wonderful defenses for the new millennium start
date of 2001. Stephen Gould has been writing on this subject for
several years. Brian summed it up really well, but, very few people
care about this. They know that on January 1, 2000, they will start
writing the year with a 2 in front and will regard this as a very big
deal. Hey for almost a thousand years you had to use a 1 and now
you get to use a 2. So the year 2000 is going to be celebrated
whether knowledgeable people tell the proletariat about the monk and the
deal with the year 1 or not.
I suspect that the average citizen regards those who raise arguments
to postpone the celebration of the millennium to the year 2001 as
hopelessly disconnected from reality and too involved in musty, academic
minutiae.
I'm going to be excited on 31 Jan 1999. Actually I think 1999
is going to be neat - the last of the one thousands.
Glenn
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