New Decade?

[flip_flop]

Had a conversation with a friend last night and she said 2011 was the start of a new decade - I disagreed.

Its not a new decade is it?

1990 was the start of the Nineties, 2000 was the start of the Noughties, so surely 2010 was the start of the new decade. There has been ten years between 2000 and 2010.

Am I missing something?

[Ankou]

no ab ed, that doesn't hapen until the start of the new year. in december.

[jno]

the Khmer Rouge had a Year Zero They used it to kill intellectuals, who unfortunately were the only people who actually understood the concept of a year zero. Anyway, a decade is 10 years, the last complete one having begun on January 11 2001.

[yogi-bear]

This is a weird one.....can see both sides.......but if i play a retro tune from ...say, 1980...ermm.......'Stomp' The Brother's Johnson, for example....does'nt make it a hit in the late 70's does it?

Decades to me are from the start of 00 to the end of 09....then new decade begins.

Some great points raised though in either cases. :0)

[girly30]

Decades surely work similarly to millenniums. A millennium is only complete after a period of 1000 years have passed. Therefore the beginning of 2001 was the start of a new millennium.
Or am I wrong Ed?

[I.Don No]

girly 30 is spot on.

We calculate our years from JC's birth. He celebrated his first birthday at the end of year 1, and his tenth birthday at the end of his tenth year of life i.e. 10AD. Therefore the year 11AD was the start of his second decade of life....and so on till you get to 1000AD, which, if he had taken all his medicine like a good little boy he would have reached the tender age of 1000 and then began his second millenium in the year 1001......simples

[MarkRae]

>> Technically 2001 was the start of the new millennium. //

> I don't think it was.

It most certainly was.

[MarkRae]

> Or am I wrong Ed?

No, you are correct.

[mibn2cweus]

It's won't be a decade until it's over . . . The new(est) decade we currently have is 2001-2011. No new(er) decade of years yet exists.

[KARL]

As already pointed out, this discussion is a very old one. At birth a child is 0 years old, not one year old, although in some cultures it is the convention to say they our first birthday is in fact the second. Similarly, if we are talking about AD based on the birth of Christ then the first year is complete at the end of year zero (i.e. on 01.01.0001, the first decade at the end of 10AD (i.e. on 01.01.0011) the first century on 01.01.0101 and the first millennium on 01.01.1001. Similarly, the second millennium was complete on 01.01.2001 which also signalled the start of the first decade of that century. That decade will be complete on 01.01.2021 - at the very start of that day which coincides with the end of the previous (midnight 31.12.2020).

[MarkRae]

> We calculate our years from JC's birth.

No, we don't. We calculate our years based on the incorrect "calculations" in the Dark Ages: http://www.westarinst...ticles/dionysius.html


> He celebrated his first birthday at the end of year 1.

He'd have been between 4 and 6 at the end of year 1...

When did Herod the Great die?

[mibn2cweus]

Yikes! Make that 2000-2010.

[mibn2cweus]

Yikes again! 2001-2010.

[ChuckFickens]

Go and have a little lie down in a dark room, mibs, I think you need it :)

[KARL]

Meant to say that if there is no year zero in the system (i.e. the start of time in the calendar is at the start of 01.01.0001) then the first decade is complete on 01.01.0012, etc. - i.e. the first decade of the third millennium is complete at midnight 31.12.2011 and/or at the very start of 01.01.2012.

[MarkRae]

> the start of time in the calendar is at the start of 01.01.0001

If you're talking about Anno Domini, then yes.


> then the first decade is complete on 01.01.0012

The first decade is complete at midnight on 31 December 10 AD. The second decade begins immediately afterwards i.e. 1 January 11 AD

[KARL]

Oh dear, spotted an error and a missing bit in my first post here: This next decade will be complete on 01.01.2021 (the first having been completed on 01.01.2011).

[Old_Geezer]

Unconvinced there are 11 years in a decade but still.

One would have thought someone would have had the sense by now to create a system that has a year 0. A simple decision to renumber all the BC years would suffice, and create a more sensible system without affecting todays date.

[KARL]

If a decade is ten years then the first dacade was complete either on 31.12.0010/01.01.0011 (start of calendar 01.01.0000) or else on 01.01.0011/01.01.0012 (start of calendar 01.01.01). If anything else then a decade cannot be exactly/fully ten years.

[New Judge]

“All measurements start from zero”

Indeed they do, vivandorron. But years do not. There was not, as far as I know, a year zero. The first bit of your thesis is quite correct. However, if the baby was born on the 1st January year 1, it will be ten on 1st January Year 11. So its second decade begins in year 11.

The second bit of your thesis falls down because from year one, each new decade began in the year ending in a ‘1’ , not a ‘0’. The year 2000 was not the start of a new decade (counting from year 1) – 2001 was. So 2011 is.

Now that IS child’s play !!

[mibn2cweus]

This might just be the beginning of the new decade by the time this question is resolved.