New Decade?

[flip_flop]

Had a conversation with a friend last night and she said 2011 was the start of a new decade - I disagreed.

Its not a new decade is it?

1990 was the start of the Nineties, 2000 was the start of the Noughties, so surely 2010 was the start of the new decade. There has been ten years between 2000 and 2010.

Am I missing something?

[I.Don No]

I'm going home, my brain hurts.

[Hopkirk]

What can we argue about next?

How about Mike1111s question about the name of the gardener in Bill and Ben.

[vivandorron]

In view of what New Judge has said, I did for a moment think of requesting the Ed to place issues before the European Courts. However, I am refraining from pursuing such a course of action because of the possibility that it could be decreed that I am totally wrong and must acknowledge that all measurements, be they time or distance etc., must start at one and henceforth what I knew to have been a foot in length will be declared to have been 13inches and a bakers dozen originally comprised a batch of 14 loaves. A pound weight was 17 ounces and a pint was 21 fluid ounces........I blame Europe for metrication; destroying our past heritage and getting me totally confused on issues of all sorts.....:-) ☺☺☺

Ron.

[flip_flop]

So from what I've read, and somewhat flippantly, am I right in thinking 1970 was the start of the Seventies, 1980 was the start of the Eighties, 1990 was the start of the Nineties but 2000 was NOT the start of the Noughties?

[R1Geezer]

no 1970/80/90/00 where the start of what have been called the 70's/80s/90's/naughties but they where not the start of the corresponding decades. For example the eighth decade of the 20th century started on 1st Jan 1971.

[nightmare]

It never ceases to amaze me how some ABers completely ignore information given in some of the answers.
There was no year zero. Fact.
Every century and therefore millennium begins on 1st January in year ending in 01.
The seventies, eighties, noughties, or whatever are a completely separate issue. They are defined in terms of their alliterative names beginning in e.g. seventy, and have nothing to do with what century or millennium they happen to be in.

End of.

[R1Geezer]

oi Nightmare, that;'s my line!

Gedditt now flipflop and co?

[jno]

a decade is 10 years. The seventies were a decade. They included 1970-1979 inclusive.

That's a different decade from the 1971-1980 decade.

Repeat: a decade is 10 years. Any 10 years you want. 1935-1944 is a decade.

[R1Geezer]

on that basis every nano second starts a decade/millenium/minuite etc etc so obvious Jno it's pointless to say it. We are talking about what, for example constitutes the ath decade of the bth Century of the cth millenium.

[nightmare]

R1
I was only reaffirming what you had written, in the vain hope that it would actually sink in with some people.

[vivandorron]

R1Geezer... You have convinced me now of the facts as presented by you.

There is no time factor between 1BC and 1AD. Consequently, going backwards in time, 2BC is twelve months prior to 1BC and, coming forward, 2AD is twelve months after 1AD. Accordingly, the second decade started in year eleven and the third millennium commenced on the 1st of January 2001.

I'm glad that has been sorted......Well I hope it has.!!

Ron.

[R1Geezer]

yes I see nightmare, It was ment as a tongue in cheek comment, immitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all, we agree on this. Well it has sunk in with one anyway, welcome on board vivandron!

[vivandorron]

R1Geezer..........Permit me to say......."Thanks Cap'n for having welcomed me aboard ship which has now set sail from Gnome." ☺☺☺

Ron.

[Chuckl]

You are correct. The vast majority of people in the world do not really understand mathematics or actual "numbers" and their relationships. The problem gets even worse in the computation of "years." Throughout the years, time keeping methods have changed with change in dynasties, global events, Papal orders, etc.

In the modern world, most of us use the Gregorian calendar. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII, issued a Papal Bull that took the world off of the Julian calendar used up to that time. (This discussion could go on forever, but space is a constraint here, so I'll skip over a lot!) Basically, it boiled down to the Roman Catholic church being uncomfortable with the ever advancing dates of Easter, because of the measurement in Julian dates. (Easter is tied to the vernal equinox.)

None of this takes into account the ancient Jewish calendar, since all of the Christian time keeping was based on the estimated time of the birth of Jesus. Compounding the whole mess is the fact that since most people don't fully understand numbers and how they relate to one another, no one ever starts counting by saying "zero, one, two, three, etc. So, in the case of decade and century counting, the decade and the century ends with "9 or 99" i.e 2009 or 1899, and begins with "0 or 00", i.e. 2010 or 1900. Looking back to the "Y2K" panic of the year 2000, it's all really very silly since time is a concept that only humans consider and we don't really know or agree how to keep track of it. (Y2K was off by more than three years depending on when the Gregorian shift occurred and if you considered "2000" as the beginning or end of a century.)

[vivandorron]

Hi Chuckl......You are now confusing me in more than one way.

You appear to have been a member for almost two years but have never posted a single question and this is your fourth reply.

Are you related to the Chuck for whom I have great respect.?

Ron.

[BertiWooster]

Oh dear - here we are again arguing over this question - i recall a long thread on this subject ,prompted by a post by myself last year .

Anyway , have a read of this -

http://news.bbc.co.uk...e_or_less/8399955.stm

[Pears]

Forget about four-figure dates and think about counting something like marbles. You start with 1 marble. When you get to 10 you have ten marbles. When you get to 20 you have twenty marbles. If we start counting years from the notional Year of Our Lord's Birth, you start at zero, his birth, so his first decade was completed at the end of year 10. That makes year 11 the start of a new decade. Add 2,000 years and you get to now, 2011, which is also the start of a new decade, as your friend says.
The problem is that very few people have worked this out by going back to first principles, with the result that we call a decade the Noughties or the Nineties and include the first date with 0 or 9 in the third place in the year number.
By the way, what are we going to call the present decade, whether we think of it as starting at 2011 or 2010? "Teens" don't start until 2013.

[mike11111]

I think it will be called the 'Tens'. There are frequent references in writing to the 1910s.

[ljdksa]

You don't start at zero with years, because there was never a Year Zero. It began at 1AD

[hermanmitt]

2001 (two thousand and 'one') - the actual start of he 21st century. The year 2000 was the last year of the 20th century.

Your friend is right. 2011 is the start of a new decade, 2010 being the last year of the previous decade!