At 06:22 PM 1/6/99 , you wrote:
> My "no year zero or one" is a simple fact: no person living at that time
>recorded any year zero or one. To them it was year X of so-in-so's reign or
>the 450th year of the cow or whatever. The Gregorian Calendar didn't come
>into major play until just prior to the turn of the first millenium.
That's exactly my point, the Gregorian Calendar is what we go by, not year
X of so-and-so's reign. And the Gregorian Calendar starts with 1AD not
zero. That's why there *was* a year one, the calendar sez so.
> The other side is this, in a count-down scheme: you do reach zero.
Count down??? We're talking about telling time, not launching the shuttle.
> In a
>count up scheme you reach the next counting digit starting from one. In order
>to maintain the correct time flow, year zero must exist just the same as the
>year 10 or year 2000 (note: 2 with some ZEROES following it) must exist. So
>year "zero" was the year immediately proceeding year one. The year prior to
>year zero was year one BC.
Once again, you're mixing counting with telling time. They're not the same.
> The usual counter to this argument is that "zero"
>technically exists only in infinity as the years are counted "away" from that
>point (This is Mike's position).
It is?? OK, if you say so.
> If you accept that argument then you accept
>that math fails at that point in time. In our math system you count -1, 0, 1
>not -1, 1. If BC = negative numbers and AD= positive numbers then year zero
>must have existed.
See above comment re counting and telling time. BC does not equal negative
numbers and AD does not represent positive numbers. They are years from a
point in time. That's why year zero never existed. It didn't have to.
> You may feel free to debate this all you like Mike, you're just not looking
>at the other side of the Calendar.
The other side of my calendar has an ad for herpes cream!! :-)
> I'm not going to put out another post on
>this topic so I'll leave with this: I've watched PHD's debate it and read some
>interesting things regarding this concept. I admit I'm in the minority, but I
>must follow my own logic, the rebel I am.
Follow away, my friend. I"ve been guilty of that more times than I can
count (no play on words intended). We'll all celebrate the new millennium
at the end of this year, then all the planes will fall out of the sky. Oh
well, at least all the naked channels on cable will unscramble.
Mike Crumley 97 V6 Auto
mail to: mcrumley@airmail,net
The more you observe politics, the more you've
got to admit that each party is worse than the other.
--Will Rogers
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