Un-freaking-believable

On another board I pop into occassionally the circa 2000 argument about when does the new century/millennium begin has erupted. This is my response [with minor corrections]:

Just look up the difference between cardinal and ordinal numbers FFS.

Cardinal numbers are one, two, three, etc.

Ordinal numbers are first, second, third, etc.

The numbers used on the calendar are ordinal, i.e. "One thousand five hundred and thirty fourth year of our Lord."

Your first year is the year between birth and turning one. Ergo no year zero.

The first decade of your life is the period from birth up to but not including your tenth brithday (which is the beginning of your 11th year and 2nd decade). Extend the concept to centuries and milennia. From birth through to but not including your 100th birthday (i.e. the 100th anniversary of your birth) is your first century. The moment you turn 100 you are in your 101st year and your 2nd century.

So now apply it to the calendar: January 1st through December 31st of the year Christ was supposedly born was the First year AD. January 1st, 1 AD though December 31st, 10 AD is a period of 10 complete years, ergo the first decade. 1 AD through to the end of 9 AD is only 9 years. 1 AD through 1999 AD is only 1999 years, i.e. 1.999 millennia, not two complete millennia. The third millenia only begins after two complete millennia have transpired, which happened at the beginning of January 1st, 2001, after the completion of the 2000th year.

Whether or not the year attributed to Christ's birth [is in error] or whether or not He actually exists is wholly irrelevant to the way numbers work. Arguing that the starting point is incorrectly placed has no bearing on whether, in this particular counting scheme, whether the 3rd millennium starts at the beginning the the 2000th year or the 2001st. It starts at the beginning [of] the 2001st. Period. It's not a question for debate unless you are the sort of idiot who would argue that 1+1 does not equal 2.

The difference between cardinal and ordinal numbers, I absolutely must point out, is third grade math. I strongly suggest anyone who has trouble with this concept should step far away from their computer and bloody well learn to count before returning.

Seriously. It's not a matter of "belief" or "opinion", it's elementary school math for fuck's sake! I should point out that this board is frequented by people who are, or at least fancy themselves as, computer programmers and other experts. How can you be a computer programmer if you can't even count properly? I guess the same way a person like this (1, 2) can be a systems administrator. Hell, she's probably one of the people arguing the century started on January 1, 2000.

Oringinal post: http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/444737.html