LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Brian Astill <brian.astill@flinders.edu.au>
  To  : Richard Sharpe <sharpe@ns.aus.com>
  Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2000 13:57:39 +1000

Re: Merry Millenium ;))

At 09:27 1/01/00 +1000, Richard Sharp wrote:

>0 is the first number in the units, ten is the first number in the tens,
>100 is the first number in the hundreds, and 2000 is the first year in the
>new millenium.

Perhaps you ought to join the Sophist Party?
Your argument is erudite, but also erroneous.

You can choose to teach your two-year-old daughter the concept of zero, so
that when she is asked to count the number of digits on her hands, she
first waves the said hands aimlessly in the air to indicate zero before
touching the first digit and saying "one".  What the poor child will do
when asked to continue with toes, Heaven knows.

Your hybrid system would also have us engage in the logical absurdity of
the first hundred ending at 99 and the SECOND hundred starting at ONE
hundred.  Happy counting!

Hopefully you will forgive the rest of us, who will continue to use the
system which has served us well (AND ACCURATELY) for several thousand
years.  In our DECIMAL system. the first digit is ONE.  In our system the
first hundred starts at one and ends (logically) at 100.  The second
hundred starts at 101 and ends (also logically) at 200.
Thus the second millenium ends (logically) at 2000.
The third milleniun begins at 2001.

>The first millenium just missed out because of mistakes
>made in the past.

The "mistakes" seem to have provided us with a highly acceptable level of
accurate measurement and calculation over a considerable period.  Please
note that ours is a DECIMAL system, ie to the base 10.  Your system would
have us use 11 digits (0 plus 1-10) some places and 10 in most others, ie
to the base whatever-you-need-at-the-time.  You can use it if you wish.

Happy millenium (when it arrives) :-)

Brian
 
Brian Astill,  Visiting Research Fellow
Flinders University Institute of International Education