From: Peter Kirk (peterkirk@qaya.org)
Date: Tue Oct 12 2004 - 03:30:04 CST
On 12/10/2004 00:10, Mike Ayers wrote:
>
> > From: Hohberger, Clive [mailto:CHohberger@zebra.com]
> > Sent: Monday, October 11, 2004 11:08 AM
>
> > I agree with you... almost.. I think that AD and BC are
> > really ordinal numbers, which denote relative position in a
> > series from a 1-origin point. I thought "1 AD" really stands
> > for "primo anno domine" (pardon my forgotten Latin) or
> > "first year of our lord".
>
> I'm not sure. As I recall (and it's been a long time), Latin
> ordinals can only be used for small quantities. Therefore I read
> "anno domine uno". Note that it is properly A.D. 1, not 1 A.D. as
> usually printed. Also note that the dual scale is bilingual - Latin
> in the forward direction and English in the reverse!
>
> > Cardinal numbers denote quantity, and may be negative or zero
> > as well as positive.
>
> I think that you are confusing a mathematical definition with
> the more common one which equates cardinal numbers and counting
> numbers. We do not speak of the "negative third year of the Clinton
> presidency", because no such year existed, likewise for B.C. and A.D..
>
>
> /|/|ike
>
But for certain purposes e.g. historical astronomical calculations (used
for establishing chronology from records of eclipses etc) the year
numbers used are effectively negative numbers (and zero) AD.
-- Peter Kirk peter@qaya.org (personal) peterkirk@qaya.org (work) http://www.qaya.org/
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