NickSo

Quick question: What years consist of the 21st century?

ChrisMatson

There was no year 0 (zero), so each centuries begin with 1.
00:00:00 on 01 January 2001 through 23:59:59 on 31 December 2100 would be your answer.

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NickSo

ChrisMatson

No. We are in the 21st. 1-100 was the first century, 1901-2000 was the 20th and 2001-2100 is the 21st.

It is similar to thinking of your age. If you are "10 years-old," you are currently in your 11th year:
0-1= first year
1-2= 2nd
2-3= 3rd
3-4= 4th
4-5= 5th
5-6= 6th
6-7= 7th
7-8= 8th
8-9= 9th
9-10= 10th
now= 11th

Did that make any sense?

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Keith Mickunas

No, we're in the 21st century. 1 to 100 was the first century. The second began with 101 ending in 200. So you go by the ending year. 1901 to 2000 would therefore be the 20th century. Does that clear it up?

Ken Chan

Just like 1582 only had 355 days, I would suggest that the 20th century only had 99 years. The third millenium, the 21st century, and the decade after the Nineties -- decades, centuries, and millenia should coincide, shouldn't they? -- all started on January 1, 2000. I remember the fireworks

I know this rankles some purists, and their argument is certainly logical. I'm just trying to give them a logical way to accept things as they are

Nick, in your paper you might mention this is a point of some contention.

//Ken

Bryan X

Just because someone calls a dog a duck doesn't make it a duck.

The 21st century did not start until January 1, 2001. There's no reason to pretend it didn't just to please the ignorant masses. That would be like us accepting Pan&Scan just because the mass of J6Ps prefer it over OAR. Wouldn't it just be easier to go along with J6P? Yeah, but we'd rather educate them as to what is correct.

I don't mean to sound bitchy, but changing facts like this just because it may be 'easier' really gets under my skin.

Henry Gale

Quote:

That would be like us accepting Pan&Scan...

All right Bryan! A home theater analogy!

Of course you're correct, but that "2" and all the zeros just made most peoples brains shut down.

I remember being on the streets of downtown Austin that night, amazed that tens of thousands of people knew the lyrics to, "The Road Goes On Forever." One year later ( the real new century and milleneum) did not draw a a fraction of the crowd.

Cees Alons

To put it more correctly: the period that "they" tagged the year as '1532' lasted for 355 days.
But the 1532nd year after the point in time they designated as the birth of Christ lasted exactly as many days (or seconds) as the 1531st and the 1533rd.

Oh, and why shouldn't people be allowed to make a lot of noise when the century is spelled with a 2 (more precise: a 20) for the first time? Has not necessarily anything to do with what century it is (since whenever), doesn't it?


Cees

NickSo