Does Anybody Ever Get This Right?

45/70 · Jan 2, 2010

I Just came across this article on Fox news.

Identical Twins Born in 2 Separate Decades

This reminds me of when an awful lot of people celebrated the 21st century a year early, during the year 2000 (the last, or 100th year of the 20th century).

I wonder when, or even if, these kids will ever figure out they were born within the same decade (2001-2010).

Why do some (most?) people find simple arithmetic so difficult? :thinking:

Dave

RA40 · Jan 2, 2010

Simple...lame headlines to get the click. Not far off fromthe tabloid lines about human baby born from space aliens.

If there is advertising on the page, the advertisers like it too.

45/70 · Jan 2, 2010

Yeah, I'm with ya there, RA40. I was referring more to how the folks in that story are unable, apparently, to count to ten though. This year, 2010, is the tenth year of the first decade of the 21st century, all the way through December 31st, untill 12 midnight. 2009 was in the same decade. And yes, the year 2000 was the last year of the last decade of the 20th century. The 21st century didn't start until 2001 and won't end until December 31st, 2100 at 12 midnight.

Dave

RA40 · Jan 2, 2010

LOL...I know. Just like the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001...all the confusion created by writers. I bet they had similar by saying born in different centuries back in the 99-00 change.

MCFLYFYTER · Jan 2, 2010

I don't believe I have ever heard of decades numbered like that. If I was born in 1960,you would say I was born in the 50's? I thought that centuries were based off an event (Christ). I don't know that a decade would use the same criteria as a start point. Can't a decade be any ten year period?

Saaby · Jan 2, 2010

Yup, tons of us got it right by acknoweging the end of 2009 as the end of a decade. My dad asked me this same question "Don't you know that the decade doesn't end until next year" and I asked him if the people insisting that were the same loonies that were insisting that the 21st century didn't start until 2001 ;-)

45/70 · Jan 2, 2010

MCFLYFYTER said:
I don't believe I have ever heard of decades numbered like that. If I was born in 1960,you would say I was born in the 50's?

Ohhhh noooo! You haven't?

50's, 60's etc. refers to years in a numerical manner, yes you were born in the 60's. 1960-1969 were "the 60's".

MCFLYFYTER said:
I thought that centuries were based off an event (Christ). I don't know that a decade would use the same criteria as a start point.

I'll go along with that just fine. The first year was 1 A.D. The year before that was 1 B.C. Notice that there is no year "zero", follow me?

OK, so the first year was 1 A.D., all year long. The second year was 2 A.D., again, all year long. We went on along to the tenth year, 10 A.D. and yes, it was the tenth year of the first decade, all year long. On December the 31st 10 A.D. at midnight, we started the second decade of the first century in the new year 11 A.D., the first year of the second decade of the first century.

How much simpler can it get?

MCFLYFYTER said:
Can't a decade be any ten year period?

I don't believe so. I think that would be simply, a "ten year period". If a decade can be considered any ten year period, then the article I linked to has no meaning at all.

Saaby said:
Yup, tons of us got it right by acknoweging the end of 2009 as the end of a decade. My dad asked me this same question "Don't you know that the decade doesn't end until next year" and I asked him if the people insisting that were the same loonies that were insisting that the 21st century didn't start until 2001 ;-)

Ohhh nooo, again! :shakehead You guys are going to have to come up with either a year "Zero" or figure out which decade only had 9 years in it to get things working your way.

Dave

Roger Sully · Jan 2, 2010

45/70 said:
You guys are going to have to come up with either a year "Zero" or figure out which decade only had 9 years in it to get things working your way.

Dave

If I had to pick I'd say it was the Sixties....with the amount of "Peace and Happiness" that was being smoked..I'm sure a bunch of people lost a good year in there somewhere.

spoonrobot · Jan 2, 2010

45/70 said:
I don't believe so. I think that would be simply, a "ten year period". If a decade can be considered any ten year period, then the article I linked to has no meaning at all.

A decade as a measurement is ten years, has no specific start and stop within our timeline. Same as a century being just a hundred years. A decade as a measurement of progress seen by society is when the tens digit changes to a new number.

You're trying to get ordinal representations to sync up with societal definitions.

The "2000s" go from 2000-2009. 2010 = new decade.

Same as the "80s" going from 1980-1989. 1990 = new decade.

It's just two different interpretations on the time line, not really a big deal.

was.lost.but.now.found · Jan 2, 2010

http://www.askoxford.com/results/?view=dev_dict&field-12668446=decade&branch=13842570&textsearchtype=exact&sortorder=score%2Cname

"• noun a period of ten years."

http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/decade

"1. A period of 10 years."

matrixshaman · Jan 2, 2010

In doing a google search on this exact question in quotes you'll get over 8,000 hits. There is definitely different interpretations with some authorities saying 1-1-2000 and others 1-1-2001. I found this quote to sum it up fairly well : "The new century began in culture on New Year's Day 2000 even though the actual mathematical and scientific change was on New Year's Day 2001". My opinion - you can have it either way you want it :grin2:

fyrstormer · Jan 2, 2010

I don't know what numbering system you guys learned, but I learned that groups of ten start at 0 and end at 9 -- 0-9, 10-19, 9450-9459, etc. There was a year 0AD, therefore there decades start with 0 and end with 9. Get over it.

LukeA · Jan 2, 2010

Lighten up, Francises.

MCFLYFYTER · Jan 2, 2010

45/70 said:
Ohhhh noooo! You haven't?

50's, 60's etc. refers to years in a numerical manner, yes you were born in the 60's. 1960-1969 were "the 60's".

I'll go along with that just fine. The first year was 1 A.D. The year before that was 1 B.C. Notice that there is no year "zero", follow me?

OK, so the first year was 1 A.D., all year long. The second year was 2 A.D., again, all year long. We went on along to the tenth year, 10 A.D. and yes, it was the tenth year of the first decade, all year long. On December the 31st 10 A.D. at midnight, we started the second decade of the first century in the new year 11 A.D., the first year of the second decade of the first century.

How much simpler can it get?

I don't believe so. I think that would be simply, a "ten year period". If a decade can be considered any ten year period, then the article I linked to has no meaning at all.

Ohhh nooo, again! :shakehead You guys are going to have to come up with either a year "Zero" or figure out which decade only had 9 years in it to get things working your way.

Dave

You have the centuries correct. You have it correct that the article you linked has no meaning at all. You are wrong about decades. :poke:

TorchBoy · Jan 2, 2010

MCFLYFYTER said:
Can't a decade be any ten year period?

Yes. Thus, any twins born spanning the new year are born in different decades... or even different centuries, since a century is just 100 years. However, when it comes to numbering centuries, it's eminently clear that 2000 was the last year of the 20th century.

Saaby said:
... I asked him if the people insisting that were the same loonies that were insisting that the 21st century didn't start until 2001 ;-)

Troll. Or perhaps you didn't intend to number it? Or were you just winding him up as well.

45/70 said:
If a decade can be considered any ten year period, then the article I linked to has no meaning at all.

Not quite - one was born in the, um, naughties, and one was born in the '10s - cultural decades.

matrixshaman said:
"The new century began in culture on New Year's Day 2000 even though the actual mathematical and scientific change was on New Year's Day 2001".

If you said "A new century.." then there's not actually much to argue with there.

fyrstormer said:
There was a year 0AD, ... Get over it.

:shakehead No... no, there wasn't. Stop smoking that stuff and you'll "get over it" in just a few months.

:buddies:

Morelite · Jan 2, 2010

fyrstormer said:
I don't know what numbering system you guys learned, but I learned that groups of ten start at 0 and end at 9 -- 0-9, 10-19, 9450-9459, etc. There was a year 0AD, therefore there decades start with 0 and end with 9. Get over it.

So when you count out money to pay somebody you hand over the first bill and say "zero", then the next and say "one"..... :poke:

Is there something I can sell you?:naughty:

MCFLYFYTER · Jan 2, 2010

Morelite said:
So when you count out money to pay somebody you hand over the first bill and say "zero", then the next and say "one".....

Is there something I can sell you?:naughty:

He said groups of ten. So yes it would be acceptable to count it out as follows; "zero" "one" "two" "three" "four" "five" "six" "seven" "eight" "nine". After the bills were in your hand you would then discover you had a group of ten bills.

This makes me want to start a thread. Maybe "Do you think that Surefires are overrated/overpriced". That sounds like another fun one to me.:thumbsup:

guiri · Jan 2, 2010

I once banged a chick from one year to another but that sure as hell didn't make the headlines..

Morelite · Jan 2, 2010

guiri said:
I once banged a chick from one year to another but that sure as hell didn't make the headlines..

Then you didn't do it in the right place :devil: location, location,location

guiri · Jan 3, 2010

Shoulda been in bed next to Tiger and his gf, bet that woulda made me famous, huh?

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