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Let's stop counting centuries (dynomight.net)

submitted 1 year ago by bot@lemmy.smeargle.fans to c/hackernews@lemmy.smeargle.fans

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[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 1 year 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.