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Posted by Raul.

Engineer on team #111, Wildstang, from Rolling Meadows & Wheeling HS and Motorola.

Posted on 12/20/99 7:05 AM MST



There are unending statements from the news media and many other people about how the new millenium is about to start. Can we set the record straight here?

Since we are to be scientist and engineers we must get are facts straight (more important than perfect spelling or grammer).
So here are the facts:

THE YEAR 2000 IS PART OF THE 20TH CENTURY!! THE NEW MILLENIUM DOES NOT START UNTIL 2001!

I will try to explain:
When you are born you are 0 (zero) years old, but we say that you are in your 1st year of life (there is no 0th year).
When you turn 9 you are in your 10th year of life.
We say you are 9 years old even though you are in your 10th year of life. This causes confusion. Your first decade of life ends when you are done with your 10th year (you turn 10) and your 11th year of life starts.
When we decided to start the AD calendar, the year 1 AD (year number 1) started when 0 (zero) years had passed.
The first year ends when
The first decade ends after the 10th year ends, after year number 10 ends and year number 11 begins.
The 1st first century ends after the 100th year ends.
The 1st millenium ends after the 1000th year ends.
The 2nd millenium ends after the 2000th year ends and year number 2001 begins!!!

That was way too complicated.

Simply put:
Since we started counting years with 1 and not zero. So in the year 2000, only 1999 years have passed and 2000 years will have passed (and thus the 2nd millenium ends) on 12/31/2000.

Raul