strathspey@strathspey.org:11818

Priscilla M. Burrage

Re: The Millenium!

April 27, 1998, 1:50 a.m. (Message 11818, in reply to message 11814)

On Mon, 27 Apr 1998, Katharine Hoskyn wrote:

> Richard Walker wrote:
> 
> > Just a caution.  The Millennium starts in 2001.
> (Centuries go from 1 to 100 not 0 to 99.)
> 
We find ourselves with this problem because the Greco-Roman counting
system didn't include a zero.  

Or as I used to say to my coworker, named De Metropolis, the Greeks didn't
know anything about nuthin'. . .

The concept of zero was invented by the Phonecians and named 'zero' by the
Arabs.  Sorry, but I don't know when Europeans accepted zero as a number.

Should we have a dance for zeros?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Priscilla Burrage       Vermont US
(xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xxx)