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Year Zero

To: mgs@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Year Zero
From: WSpohn4@aol.com
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1999 01:06:16 EST
 <<It will not be the 21st Century until 1/1/2001. not 1/1/2000. The 20th 
 Century did not start until 1/1/1901. Or do we have just 99 years this 
 Century??>

<Oh, really?   You are assuming that the year number refers to the number of
years that have been completed.  It actually refers to the year that we are
in.  Yes, the 2000th year will begin in the year 2000. 
Ray G>>

OK, once more slowly. There is no year zero. The first year of the Christian
era (regardless of when JC may or may not have been born) was year 1.
At the end of year 1, we have completed one year. Are you all with me so far,
because it gets complicated now?

By extrapolation, at the end of year 2000, we will have completed the 2000th
year (I know this might seem obvious , but some people have trouble with it),
ie we will then, at midnight on Dec. 31, enter the 2001st year, and the 21st
century. Which is, I believe, exactly what Larry (correctly) said.

So you are right in saying that we will be in the 2000th year in the year
2000, but you failked to make the leap and realize that that year, and the
century, and the millennium, will only be over on Dec. 31.

Everyone got it?  Good.

Bill S.

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