The new decade

[tm4tj]

OK guys, and girls

I am getting fed up hearing on TV that the new decade has begun. I am not so sure it has. I believe it begins at the start of 2011. In fact was the new millenium celebrated a year too early as well? I will check it out at the next millenium.

What do you think, wheres Bannerman when you need him, probably out playing darts or smoking pot.

Edited January 4, 2010 by themann4thejob

[Heilandee]

When did they start the previous millenium and did you go to the street party?

[Renegade]

Heard this debate on the radio recently. Was 2000 the last year of the 1990s? Course not. You start at zero, as you would with a new born baby. When a baby is born, it isn't one, it's zero. The same with this stuff.

[+Gringo]

So, when BC became AD...did AD start at 0AD or 1AD?

[tm4tj]

2000 was not the last year of the 90's but it was the last year of that decade which started in 1991.

A year has not passed until the end of that particular year. Therefore, when time begun, it started on the first day of 0AD, 1 year had not passed until Dec 31st, it then would become 1AD. Continue from there, then after the ten December 31st's a decade has passed, therefore every decade should be starting with a year with 1 in it, ie 11, 121, 1991, 2001,2011.

So, we need to find somebody who was around when BC ended and AD started, wheres Johnboy.

[The Mantis]

2000 was not the last year of the 90's but it was the last year of that decade which started in 1991.

A year has not passed until the end of that particular year. Therefore, when time begun, it started on the first day of 0AD, 1 year had not passed until Dec 31st, it then would become 1AD. Continue from there, then after the ten December 31st's a decade has passed, therefore every decade should be starting with a year with 1 in it, ie 11, 121, 1991, 2001,2011.

So, we need to find somebody who was around when BC ended and AD started, wheres Johnboy.

I think you're confusing yourself now Mannie. There would be no 0 AD surely, that would mean the first decade had 11 years in it. 0 is not an ordinal number..... as you say Johnboy should be along shortly, or even Bannerman. If anybody knows it'll be him

[tm4tj]

No actual 0 AD but...........it surely does not become 1 year until the end of the first year,ie, one month would be 1/12th of a year. Ten years can not pass until after the end of the tenth year.......am I missing something.

I think I'll go and clear the car roof.

[+Gringo]

I think I'll go and clear the car roof.

:(

So, if AD is for the years after Christ was born why doesn't the year start on 25th Dec? We're missing 6 days somewhere.

:wacko:

[CaleyD]

As their was no "year zero" and the calendar changed from 1BC to 1AD then logic (and simple maths) dictates that the decade does not finish until the completion of a year ending in 0....in other words we are still in decade number 201 and 202 does not start till this year ends.

[Scotty]

to hell with it - just celebrate it on both years :( :wacko:

PS - its not BC and AD anymore .... its BCE and CE which stand for "before common era" and "common era" .... I first saw this at the Royal Ontario Museum last year when viewing the Dead Sea Scrolls ... I believe it is the PC version so as not to offend any non-christians, agnostics etc !

[CaleyT]

He's right you know.

Two thousand years had passed on the last day of the year 2000. Therefore the new millenium actually began on the 1st of January 2001.

I remember mentioning that at the time but they didn't listen. Aye, they'll be kicking themselves now though.

And whoever suggested that the first year was year zero is talking out of the wrong orifice, I respectfully suggest!

[12th Man]

My brain hurts, anyone who can say it is 1 BC at the time can predict the future.

Just to confuse things slightly more.

September 2, 1752, was a great day in the history of sleep.

That Wednesday evening, millions of British subjects in England and the colonies went peacefully to sleep and did not wake up until twelve days later. Behind this feat of narcoleptic prowess was not some revolutionary hypnotic technique or miraculous pharmaceutical discovered in the West Indies. It was, rather, the British Calendar Act of 1751, which declared the day after Wednesday the second to be Thursday the fourteenth.

Prior to that cataleptic September evening, the official British calendar differed from that of continental Europe by eleven days?that is, September 2 in London was September 13 in Paris, Lisbon, and Berlin. The discrepancy had sprung from Britain's continued use of the Julian calendar, which had been the official calendar of Europe since its invention by Julius Caesar (after whom it was named) in 45 B.C.

Caesar's calendar, which consisted of eleven months of 30 or 31 days and a 28-day February (extended to 29 days every fourth year), was actually quite accurate: it erred from the real solar calendar by only 11? minutes a year. After centuries, though, even a small inaccuracy like this adds up. By the sixteenth century, it had put the Julian calendar behind the solar one by 10 days.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered the advancement of the calendar by 10 days and introduced a new corrective device to curb further error: century years such as 1700 or 1800 would no longer be counted as leap years, unless they were (like 1600 or 2000) divisible by 400.

If somewhat inelegant, this system is undeniably effective, and is still in official use in the United States. The Gregorian calendar year differs from the solar year by only 26 seconds?accurate enough for most mortals, since this only adds up to one day's difference every 3,323 years.

Despite the prudence of Pope Gregory's correction, many Protestant countries, including England, ignored the papal bull. Germany and the Netherlands agreed to adopt the Gregorian calendar in 1698; Russia only accepted it after the revolution of 1918, and Greece waited until 1923 to follow suit. And currently many Orthodox churches still follow the Julian calendar, which now lags 13 days behind the Gregorian.

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Since their invention, calendars have been used to reckon time in advance, and to fix the occurrence of events like harvests or religious festivals.

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Why So Difficult?

Since their invention, calendars have been used to reckon time in advance, and to fix the occurrence of events like harvests or religious festivals. Ancient peoples tied their calendars to whatever recurring natural phenomena they could most easily observe. In areas with pronounced seasons, annual weather changes usually fixed the calendar; in warmer climates such as Southern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, the moon was used to mark time.

Unfortunately, the cycles of the sun and moon do not synchronize well. A lunar year (consisting of 12 lunar cycles, or lunations, each 29? days long) is only 354 days, 8 hours long; a solar year lasts about 365? days. After three years, a strict lunar calendar would have diverged from the solar calendar by 33 days, or more than one lunation.

The Muslim calendar is hence the only purely lunar calendar in widespread use today. Its months have no permanent connection to the seasons? Muslim religious celebrations, such as Ramadan, may thus occur at any date of the Gregorian calendar.

The phases of the moon have nonetheless remained a popular way to divide the solar year, if only because a 365?-day year doesn't exactly lend itself to equal subdivision (the 71?-day month has yet to find favor among menologists). To compensate for the difference in the solar and lunar year, calendar makers introduced the practice of intercalation?the addition of extra days or months to the calendar to make it more accurate. The semilunar Hebrew calendar, consisting of twelve 29- and 30-day months, adds an intercalary month seven times every 19 years (which explains the sometimes confusing drift of Passover?and consequently Easter? through April and March).

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Despite its widespread use, the Gregorian calendar has a number of weaknesses. It cannot be divided into equal halves or quarters; the number of days per month is haphazard; and months or even years may begin on any day of the week.

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Best of All Possible Calendars?

Despite its widespread use, the Gregorian calendar has a number of weaknesses. It cannot be divided into equal halves or quarters; the number of days per month is haphazard; and months or even years may begin on any day of the week. Holidays pegged to specific dates may also fall on any day of the week, and vanishingly few Americans can predict when Thanksgiving will occur next year.

Since Gregory XIII, many other proposals for calendar reform have been made. In the 1840s, philosopher Auguste Comte suggested that the 365th day of each year be a holiday not assigned a day of the week. The generic "Year Day" would allow January 1 to fall on a Sunday every year. Needless to say, this clever solution was not widely embraced.

The French Revolution also saw an attempt at the introduction of a new calendar. On October 5, 1793, the revolutionary convention decreed that the year (starting on September 22, 1792?the autumnal equinox, and the day after the proclamation of the new republic) would be divided into 12 months of 30 days, named after corresponding seasonal phenomena (e.g. seed, blossom, harvest).

The remaining five days of the year, called sans-culottides, were feast days. In leap years, the extra day, Revolution Day, was to be added to the end of the year. The Revolutionary calendar had no week; each month was divided into three decades, with every tenth day to be a day of rest. This straightforward calendar, however, perished with the Republic.

Edited January 4, 2010 by 12th Man

[Guest]

DILLIGAF

[Alex MacLeod]

The question is a stupid one. The meaning of the word decade is 'a period of ten years'. Therefore a new decade starts every day.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Gringo--you are funny!.

12rth Man --are you known as an egg-head at school or do you work for the British Government in a high , elevated position. I mean do you assist george Brtown to drink his tea by steadying his hand, like?Smile.

Class man.

Such a change to have someone of your timbre, with a command of facts and figures to hand that either educates intensely or causes penultimate confusion. Me--it's a breeze. Takes one to know one....eh?

I guess Chas Bannertheman is obsolete now.

Smiles will not open so I cannot express my admiration to the qunintupulate. But I am positively enervated.

[Guest]

Gringo--you are funny!.

12rth Man --are you known as an egg-head at school or do you work for the British Government in a high , elevated position. I mean do you assist george Brtown to drink his tea by steadying his hand, like?Smile.

Class man.

Such a change to have someone of your timbre, with a command of facts and figures to hand that either educates intensely or causes penultimate confusion. Me--it's a breeze. Takes one to know one....eh?

I guess Chas Bannertheman is obsolete now.

Smiles will not open so I cannot express my admiration to the qunintupulate. But I am positively enervated.

A skill easily attained by anyone who can find this website.

[12th Man]

Gringo--you are funny!.

12rth Man --are you known as an egg-head at school or do you work for the British Government in a high , elevated position. I mean do you assist george Brtown to drink his tea by steadying his hand, like?Smile.

Class man.

Such a change to have someone of your timbre, with a command of facts and figures to hand that either educates intensely or causes penultimate confusion. Me--it's a breeze. Takes one to know one....eh?

I guess Chas Bannertheman is obsolete now.

Smiles will not open so I cannot express my admiration to the qunintupulate. But I am positively enervated.

All that just rolled off the tounge and my secretary just typed it all for me, some people would just assume I did a search for the Gregorian calendar, and just copied and pasted, some people have little faith.

As for Charliee I tried to wind him up before and he didn't bite, if he does have a peek on here the odds he calculated but forgot how to get to the answer was 7657/2.

[CaleyD]

With Burlington Bertie getting the boot, you should really have said 3829.5