YOUR SAY: Confusion reigns over decades and centuries

‘It’s time we cleared up misconceptions so we don’t have the same argument every 10 or 100 years’

People celebrate the arrival of the year 2020 at a New Year's Eve countdown event in Beijing on January 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

IT IS about time we cleared up misconceptions about what decades and centuries are, so we don’t have the same argument every 10 or 100 years.

One whole year is after the elapse of 12 months, or 52 weeks, or 365 days. For example, we don’t say a human being is one year old at birth, that has to wait for the elapse of 365 days.

Ten lots of 365 days (plus extras for a leap year every four years) make up a decade – and 100 lots of 365 days (plus extras for leap years) make up a century.

Your tenth birthday was a full 10 years or 3650 (plus) days after your birth, not the day after your ninth birthday.

A year ending in nine cannot be the last year of the decade.

By taking this straightforward and correct calculation into consideration, this 21st century started on January 1, 2001, after a full 2000 had elapsed (based on the estimated birth of Jesus).

And the second decade of this century starts on January 1, 2021, after a full 10 years have elapsed since 2001.

Clear now?

Alan Bambrick, North Rockhampton

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