Let’s stop counting centuries
dynomight.net
One-indexing problems in everyday life
  • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
    21·
    10 days ago
    Counting centuries N00s
    Caesar died in the 1st century BCE. Caesar died in the 000s BCE.
    Octavius died in the 1st century CE. Octavius died in the 000s CE.

    Counting centuries as it has been traditionally done makes sense, because -1 and +1 are different numbers. Using “N00s” doesn’t because -0 and +0 are the same number.

    And it’s easy to remember because the Nth century always ends (if positive) or starts (if negative) in the year N*100.

    Moral of the story: don’t tell people to fix what is not broken.