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Re: Year Zero

To: mgs@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Re: Year Zero
From: dresden@tiac.net
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1999 20:52:36 GMT
>>>"The common and accepted practice seems to be ...
>
>>The common practice long ago was the world was flat.  Is that what you
>>want us to believe.
>
>We abandoned the flat world theory some time back, yet held on to the
>practice of which I wrote.
>
>Again, since the practice is common and accepted among those who use it
>daily, has been that method for hundreds of years, etc, ad infinitum, ad
>nauseum, it appears that the use of any other method of calculation is
>incorrect (or at the least, estopped from use).
>
Umm, actually, I think the common practice has always been that a century
begins on the start of the '01 year...none of us are old enough (I don't
think, anyway) to remember the start of the 20th century, but historically
speaking, the year 1900 is in fact the last year of the 18th century, and
not the first year of the 20th. And as it only happens every one hundred
years, it's probably wrong to call it "common practice". It is rather
uncommon, but if the first century started, by today's reckoning, on year
one, and a century is 100 years, then the century doesn't end until the
last day of the 100th year. WHich means the new century starts on the first
day of '01. The odometer effect is still pretty neat, but not the new
century. I have only two years of college astronomy to back me up, but
that's my  $.02 (As we all know that .02 cents is much less than two whole
cents).



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