The year 0 AD

Alex Livingston alex at agsm.unsw.edu.au
Tue Jan 7 00:29:46 UTC 1997


Peter Hullah wrote:

>I think that, if you re-read what Chris said, he is of the same opinion
>as you - as are, probably, 
>most clear thinking people and we probably don't need it spelt out in
>words of one syllable. 

I'm sorry to have let off steam in the wrong forum and bored many people (grovel). I don't doubt that Chris is of the same general opinion as me. I'm afraid it triggered me off and I got carried away. But I hope you don't object to the use of words of one syllable in any context ;-) . Happy New Year to you too (no sarcasm intended).

Eric Ulevik wrote:

>Otherwise, the argument is that there was no year zero
>in the Julian calendar

I can't resist hammering this point: There is no modern-day obvious inevitability for a "year zero" in any calendar, just as there is no "day 0" at the beginning of a month or "month 0" at the beginning of a year (and I could list any number of other examples from very different contexts). Talk of a "year zero" is a red herring (though not a malicious or deliberate one). It is to my mind condescending and supercilious to belittle ancient calendar designers by claiming they didn't have a "concept of zero" - they probably did in fact, but they didn't need it.

Well, that had better be the last I say on this topic here!



_______________
Alex LIVINGSTON
Macintosh Support
Computing & IT (C&IT)
Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM)
The University of New South Wales (UNSW)
Sydney  NSW  2052
AUSTRALIA

E-mail   : alex at agsm.unsw.edu.au; cit at agsm.unsw.edu.au (C&IT)
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