We all think we have ten fingers, so let's count 'em down. Right-hand pinky is 10, ring finger is 9, social finger is 8, index is seven, and thumb is 6. Finished with the right hand, right? (Pun intended but excused).

Now, there are 5 fingers on that left hand, correct?

Add the 6 and the 5, and we get 11 fingers!

Bob Clayton

And I know the days of the week all the way to 100, too! (Best if read aloud: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Three's day, Four's-dy, Five's-dy, Sixty, Seventy, Eighty, Ninety, One hundred!)

Cheers,
Alan

mcmoo

I had a really good book on it, but I think i lent it out.

katwhowillcelebratethenewyearbutwait'tilnextyearforthenewmillennium!

In AD 525, the Roman Numbering system (I=1, V=5, X=10 etc.) was still in use. The concept of zero didn't exist. An Italian monk, Dionysius Exiguus, (Dennis the Short), was tasked by Pope St. John I to prepare the 'Cyclus Paschalis', a history of the Christian Era. By counting back the ages of popes, bishops and kings, the original Dennis the Menace calculated that the present year was 525 years after the birth of Christ, at the beginning of year 1 A.D. - rather than 0 A.D. (Remember, no such thing as zero!) We now know that his calculations were off by 4-7 years, because we know that Herod died in 4 BC (Kinda hard to to math with no zero!) So the whole thing is a moot point anyway!

If each century has 100 years (1,2,3...100), then year 100 belongs to the century 'preceding' it, and the new century starts on January 1, 101, and the millennium on January 1, 2001.

Look at it this way. A dollar = 100 cents. It starts with $0.01 and ends with $1.00. $1.01 is the start of your next buck.

If you still want to argue, have at it!

These links can explain it better than I can!:

• US Naval Observatory
• The Aussie's have it right!
• ABC News' story
• Here's an explanation of the difference between Roman and Arabic numbering systems

The difficulty comes when people want to identify the millennium of the 2000s (which starts on 2000 January 1) with the 3rd millennium A.D. (which starts on 2001 January 1). Both are millennia, but it is mathematically impossible to consider them exactly the same. It's true, though, that most people who speak of "the" millennium seem to be making this identification. Their words aren't technically wrong, since "the new millennium" of the 2000s begins on 2000 January 1. They could speak accurately in precisely these words. But the context usually betrays that they make the false identification of the millennium of the 2000s with the 3rd millennium A.D. or the century of the twenty-hundreds (2000-2099) with the 21st century A.D. (2001-2100).

T.