User:Samhastings/Sandbox

Insert non-formatted text here Under the heading "Numerical explanation" in the above discussion, the explanations of the ordinal and cardinal numbering systems are excellently portrayed. The following paragraph points out the ambiguity raised by the use of "one" to represent both "year one" or the "first" year. It goes on to say that there is no way to tell which "one" is intended. I offer the following table as a direct way to eliminate the ambiguity. Let M represent a millenium, C a century, D a decade, Y a year and H an hour:

-M-  -C-   -D-   -Y-   -H-

Ordinal       3rd     1st    1st    1st    1st    Placing things in order Cardinal      2nd     0       0       0      0      Starting point for measuring the passage of time

It stands to reason that the beginning of the first hour is also the beginning of millenia, centuries, decades and years. I offer the sundial as proof that the first hour started at zero. The off-quoted reason presented for the belief in a so-called "missing year zero" is that Dionysius Exiguus didn't know of the symbol 0. The ancients established the highest point of the sun in the sky as their 0 (the meridian). The first hour on the sundial started at XII (their sundial 0) and ended at I(1).

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[[[| 2nd yr BC  |  1st yr BC  |  1st yr AD  |  2nd yr AD  |                  |  Year 3757  |  Year 3758  |  Year 0 AD  |  Year 1 AD  |                           |  Year 1 BC  |  Year 0 AD  |  Year 1 AD  |  Year 2 AD  |                  |-2           |-1           |0            |+1           |+2

[[[|-2          |-1           | 0           |+1           |+2           |     | 2nd yrBC|1st yrBC|1sy yrAD|year 0 AD|2nd yrAD

[|-2..........|-1..........|0.........|+1...........|+2]

Don't you see? Cassini marked the year Christ was born 0 whereas the chronologists that year as -1.