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Did the year zero never exist ? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Please explain my confused me like I'm 5 (0r 4 or 6).

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

When you consider the time as a number line, years are not points at integers (which would in some way warrant a year 0), but rather periods between them. Year 1 is the period between 0 and 1, and before that was -1 to 0, or year -1. There is no year 0, because there isn't anything between 0 and 0

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This explanation is unclear to me. Why do we choose the later of the two endpoints of the year for (0, 1) but the earlier of the two for (-1, 0)?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Because until the Middle Ages, Europeans were afraid of the number 0.