Midnight! does it exist?

[Andy 10]

All of this reminds me of the millennium celebrations that the whole country seemed to take part in one year early.

 

Of course you start counting from zero for everything. The first unit (second, mile, tonne) is one. If I give you something for free it costs zero pounds, not one pound.

 

---------- Post added 22-11-2014 at 19:23 ----------

 

Andy, I possibly owe you an apology after re-reading your post.

 

I realise now it's not yourself who's been saying 13:00pm, it's others, you're just quoting them.

They are wrong, there is no 13:00pm, just 13:00 or 1:00pm.

 

No apology needed but you're right. The point I was trying to make is that 13:00pm is meaningless. Does it mean 1pm or does it mean 13 hours post meridian?

 

This thread shows why transport companies, the military etc. use the 24 hour clock!

[mjw47 10]

I've left that as an exercise for the reader

 

I have you down as a bit of a nitpicker, but not a bad person despite that.

 

---------- Post added 22-11-2014 at 19:31 ----------

 

All of this reminds me of the millennium celebrations that the whole country seemed to take part in one year early.

 

Of course you start counting from zero for everything. The first unit (second, mile, tonne) is one. If I give you something for free it costs zero pounds, not one pound.

 

---------- Post added 22-11-2014 at 19:23 ----------

 

 

 

I had that problem attempting to explain it to someone who was convinced that the year 2000 was the first year of the new century, as opposed to the final year of the last century.

 

Finally got it through to him by pointing out that if you are asked to count to one hundred you haven't done it til you say one hundred, and you start at one not nought.

Edited November 22, 2014 by mjw47

[dosxuk 10]

I had that problem attempting to explain it to someone who was convinced that the year 2000 was the first year of the new century, as opposed to the final year of the last century.

 

Finally got it through to him by pointing out that if you are asked to count to one hundred you haven't done it til you say one hundred, and you start at one not nought.

 

How many years has someone spent alive when they celebrate their 100th birthday?

[rockonvynil 10]

How many years has someone spent alive when they celebrate their 100th birthday?

 

one hundred years plus nine months

[dosxuk 10]

one hundred years plus nine months

 

But some are saying it's 99 years [and nine months]. The 100 means it's the start of their 100th year, not that 100 years have elapsed since their birth.

[mjw47 10]

How many years has someone spent alive when they celebrate their 100th birthday?

 

excluding the nine months and simply counting from their actual birth date, it will be the one hundredth birthday which they have celebrated, they didn't celebrate their first birthday until the completion of the first twelve months.

 

Each birthday is the marking of the passing of a full year since the last one so even allowing for leap years they are still described as years.

 

You are not born at one year old, you are one minute and then one hour and then a week, a month and so on.

 

So it seems fairly straightforward, unless you know something different.

Edited November 22, 2014 by mjw47

[dosxuk 10]

You are not born at one year old, you are one minute and then one hour and then a week, a month and so on.

 

So we *do* count from zero then?

 

So how come when somebody celebrates their 100th birthday, it's the end of a century of their life, but when we celebrate at the start of a new millenium, people are saying we should celebrate it at the start of the x001 year? (Which not only is at odds with how we work out ages, but also decades and centuries).

 

I think there's an anti-zero sentiment underlying these arguments...

[yorky15 10]

But some are saying it's 99 years [and nine months]. The 100 means it's the start of their 100th year, not that 100 years have elapsed since their birth.

 

I'm with you on that one, a century is as we know, 100 years, not 99..You will be 100 on your 100th birthday, no question!

[buck 11]

The military makes a real effort to get it right. Midday is 1200 hours, midnight can be either 2400 hours or zero hours, depending on your service. in either case, that's the start of the next day.

[mjw47 10]

So we *do* count from zero then?

 

So how come when somebody celebrates their 100th birthday, it's the end of a century of their life, but when we celebrate at the start of a new millenium, people are saying we should celebrate it at the start of the x001 year? (Which not only is at odds with how we work out ages, but also decades and centuries).

 

I think there's an anti-zero sentiment underlying these arguments...

 

The thing is that counting things is a human invention, numbers are there to describe quantity so that we can explain it to each other, but people are not numbers.

 

During the first year of a humans life we could if we wished say nought when asked the childs age, that would make sense in that we count age in years and a year has not elapsed from the infants birth.

 

However we prefer to provide more information than that, and so we say three months or whatever.

 

Only when the child has completed twelve months do we say one in reply to the question.

 

When we started counting years we presumably didn't wish to go around for twelve months saying nought, it's the year nought mate, we're starting next year with the positive numbers.

 

So we started at one, only in order to complicate it, in the Christian calendar we started with 1 AD Anno Domini ( in the year of our Lord ) any years prior to that were referred to as BC ( Before Christ ) and are counted backwards away from AD.

 

To further complicate it there is no year zero and the numbers have been changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.

 

Both Julian and Gregory were Popes who used to decide this type of thing for all of Christendom.

 

Obviously just to make it simple other religions have their own calendars.

 

It is 5774 in the Jewish calendar and their years are eleven days less than ours so a Jew is actually younger than what he says.

 

Muslims, Hindus and the Chinese all have their own calendars with differing years also.

 

I do hope that that has cleared it up for you.

[redgate 10]

Well, to put a stop to this and actually help yorky15 - I understand I have just acquired the very same voucher (albeit could be a different restaurant) so I rang the place and asked them and they said midday was the expiry time! So, that's that then.....

 

But I did ask what the conditions were for the offer being valid - I asked if I needed to order before midday to qualify or just have a table booked before midday. They said providing I booked a table before midday then I'd qualify - so I guess, in the end, you could get 2 for 1 before midday and between midday and midnight!!

[mjw47 10]

Well, to put a stop to this and actually help yorky15 - I understand I have just acquired the very same voucher (albeit could be a different restaurant) so I rang the place and asked them and they said midday was the expiry time! So, that's that then.....

 

But I did ask what the conditions were for the offer being valid - I asked if I needed to order before midday to qualify or just have a table booked before midday. They said providing I booked a table before midday then I'd qualify - so I guess, in the end, you could get 2 for 1 before midday and between midday and midnight!!

 

So basically, what you're saying is that we've had an 83 post thread and people are suffering migraines through over thinking, and Yorky could have picked up a phone and asked a question and there would have been no need for any of this stress?

 

Yorky! Have a word with yourself, give your head a shek.