From Wikipedia:
Any period of ten years is a "decade", and there is no "official" legal nor
administrative start or end point,[1][2] so it can be any arbitrary span of ten
years. For example, (1) 'the first decade' of a person's life begins on their
birthday; (2) the statement that "during his last decade, Mozart explored
chromatic harmony to a degree rare at the time" merely refers to the last ten
years of Mozart's life without regard to which calendar years are encompassed.
There are two main methods of counting decades in recognition. The first
method, counting ordinally, counts decades starting with the first year 1 CE
(For example, the years 1981–1990 is referred to as the 199th decade or the 9th
decade of the 20th century), while the other, counting cardinally, groups years
based on having the same digits (For example, the years 1980–1989 is referred
to as the 1980s, or commonly known as the eighties).
A YouGov poll was conducted on December 2, 2019, asking 13,582 Americans
whether the following decade would begin on New Year's Day 2020 or New Year's
Day 2021. Results show that 64% of Americans answered the next decade will
begin on January 1, 2020, and will end on December 31, 2029 (the cardinal
range). 19% of the Americans surveyed replied they are unsure, while 17%
answered the next decade will begin on January 1, 2021, and will end on
December 31, 2030 (the ordinal range).[3]
The frequently used method to refer to decades is the cardinal method, which
groups years based on their shared tens digit, such as the nineteen-sixties
(1960s) referring to the period from 1960 to 1969.[4][5] Sometimes, only the
tens part is mentioned (60s or sixties), although this may leave it uncertain
which century is meant. In this method, a new decade begins when the third
digit of a numerical year changes (for example, the 1970s began when 1969 ended
and 1970 took over) while ending on the last day of any year ending in nine.
The fact of there being no year zero does not apply, as this method counts
decades cardinally rather than ordinally.
The rarer ordinal decade counts years beginning with the year AD 1, as the
Gregorian calendar counts ordinally rather than cardinally, and hence there was
no year zero. For example, the term 196th decade spans the years from 1951 to
1960. The last year of an ordinal decade ends in zero while matching with the
corresponding digits used in the title (For example, the 201st decade spans
from 2001 to 2010). Alternately, one could use the term "sixth decade of the
twentieth century" in lieu of "196th decade" to refer to the years 1951–1960.
Particularly in the 20th century, decades came to be referred to with
associated nicknames, such as the "Swinging Sixties" (1960s), the "Warring
Forties" (1940s) and the "Roaring Twenties" (1920s). This practice is
occasionally also applied to decades of earlier centuries; for example,
referencing the 1890s as the "Gay Nineties" or "Naughty Nineties".
Rick Tejera (K7TEJ)
Saguaro Astronomy Club
www.saguaroastro.org
Thunderbird Amateur Radio Club
www.W7TBC.org
-----Original Message-----
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Steve
Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2020 2:54 PM
To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: ATM/Astro-Imaging meeting is Tuesday
0 is a rational number. How do we have 0 of something? Â It is used to
define a quantity of something just like 1, 2, 3, etc.
Or, maybe we are gonna relieve the roaring 20's ðŸ‘
Steve Ruttenberg PhotographerAmateur
Astronomerwww.steveruttenbergphotography.com843.518.1395
On Sat, Jan 4, 2020 at 7:19 AM -0700, "Padraig Houlahan" <pjhmx1@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I think it’s possible to be too clever here. We don’t teach children to
count on their fingers starting with 0 -1-2-3 etc. Also, the concept of zero
came long after that whole numbers.
P
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 3, 2020, at 10:18 PM, Paul Lind wrote:--
Seriously guys, this is the beginning of the decade called THE TELESCOPE
TWENTIES.
Engineers like Dr. Mozdzen and Mr. Kozel know that numbering starts at ZERO
in mathematics, engineering, and telescope making, and the beginning of all
time. This is the start of the next decade, the "TELESCOPE TWENTIES". Some
liberal arts folks like musicians insist at counting time starting at "one"
and ending at "and ah". Putting the downbeat at 'one' never made sense to
me. Musicians also screw up the numbering of harmonics, using the term
"first harmonic" to describe TWICE the fundamental frequency. I forgive them
for that and like to dabble in music myself.
Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: Thomas Mozdzen
To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Fri, 03 Jan 2020 15:02:37 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: ATM/Astro-Imaging meeting is Tuesday
Try this
https://xkcd.com/2249/
[https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/i_love_the_20s_2x.png]
xkcd: I Love the 20s
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5
License. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to
sell them). More details..
xkcd.com
________________________________
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of KEVIN KOZEL
Sent: Friday, January 3, 2020 12:56 PM
To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ; Paul Lind ; sac-forum
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: ATM/Astro-Imaging meeting is Tuesday
Paul,
I must correct your statement that we are beginning a new decade. 2020 is the
tenth year of the current decade, not the start of a new one.
We begin our counting with the number One, not Zero, and each decade has ten
years, thus 2020 being the last year of the current decade.
2021 will be the beginning of the next decade. The same reasoning is used
with the new centuries. For example, the 1900's were the twentieth century
and we are now in the twenty first century.
I can't convince my wife of this no matter how hard I try, so I let her think
what she wants.
Kevin Kozel
On January 3, 2020 at 2:31 PM Paul Lind wrote:
Hi,
We'll have this decade's first Amateur Telescope Making and Astro-imaging
meeting on Tuesday, Jan 7 in my shop, starting at 6:30. I plan to set up the
Foucault tester, so bring a mirror you want tested. We'll also do some
drilling and tapping on the lathe on a part that Lynn needs for his "double
telescope mount". So, if you have any small machining projects, bring them
over Tuesday evening.
Paul Lind
210 W. Tierra Buena Lane
Phoenix, AZ 85023
cell: 602-350-6190
--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please
send personal replies to the author, not the list.
--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and
please send personal replies to the author, not the list.
--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and
please send personal replies to the author, not the list.
--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and
please send personal replies to the author, not the list.