Why aren't there 0 days?

[Brent]

Why does the first day of the month start with 01 and not 00?

For example, June 1st. Why don't we start with June 0 and work our way up from there, I mean, 0 is a number right? Should be June 0, then June 1, then 2 and on and on. The week should also be 0-6 right?

Am i crazy?

 

[Birdog]

Because it's the first day of June?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Zero is meant to denote the *lack* of something. Anything that actually exists cannot logically be numbered zero.

 

[JonathonWally]

Why does the first day of the month start with 01 and not 00?

For example, June 1st. Why don't we start with June 0 and work our way up from there, I mean, 0 is a number right? Should be June 0, then June 1, then 2 and on and on. The week should also be 0-6 right?

Am i crazy?

Puff puff pass bro.

 

[gturner]

Because the days were numbered before we'd adopted Arabic (or Indian) numerals. The Roman numeral system didn't have a zero.

 

[Lindley]

Because the days were numbered by mathematicians rather than computer scientists.

 

[Chaos Descending]

We count things with "counting number" or "natural numbers". Zero is not a "counting number".

 

[Lindley]

We count things with "counting number" or "natural numbers". Zero is not a "counting number".

Ironically, your own link isn't entirely sure whether the natural numbers N start with 0 or 1.

Most often I've seen them start with 0, and the set starting with 1 is called the Positive Numbers, or Z+.

 

[Captain_Nick]

Why doesn't the first day of each month start with -1?

 

[Lindley]

Zero is meant to denote the *lack* of something. Anything that actually exists cannot logically be numbered zero.

Depends. If you're talking about distance, as you often are in computer science, then numbering something as being at distance 0 is perfectly reasonable.

For example, you could refer to the first day of June as "Zero days after the start of June".

It's a bit awkward because we aren't used to it, but a perfectly reasonable label.

 

[gturner]

We should note that Stardate 0.000 is Midnight, January 1, 2323, or something like that.

See, it didn't start at 1!!!

 

[Small White Car]

Because then June 9th would be the 10th day of the month.

And no good can come from that.

 

[Lindley]

Because then June 9th would be the 10th day of the month.

And no good can come from that.

Maybe we'd get fewer high school CS students crashing their programs because they try to access arr[10] in a 10-element array.....

 

[scotpens]

Zero is meant to denote the *lack* of something. Anything that actually exists cannot logically be numbered zero.

Except in an old movie with Ray Milland.

Panic in Year Zero

Because the days were numbered by mathematicians rather than computer scientists.

Actually it's because the days were numbered by people who weren't drinking the bong water.

We should note that Stardate 0.000 is Midnight, January 1, 2323, or something like that.

In military time, midnight is 0000 hours. That's plenty of zeros.

 

[gturner]

We should note that Stardate 0.000 is Midnight, January 1, 2323, or something like that.

In military time, midnight is 0000 hours. That's plenty of zeros.

But in the military can you pronounce it with your choice of "nought" and "zero"?

What time is it?

Well, according to my watch it's nought zero zero zero hours.

Yes, but what time is it?

Well now it's nought zero zero one hours.

I will shoot you where you stand!

 

[od0_ital]

... Am i crazy?

Sounds like you're startin' to slip, yeah...

 

[Chaos Descending]

We count things with "counting number" or "natural numbers". Zero is not a "counting number".

Ironically, your own link isn't entirely sure whether the natural numbers N start with 0 or 1.

Most often I've seen them start with 0, and the set starting with 1 is called the Positive Numbers, or Z+.

Be that is it may, the term "counting numbers" (which I used twice) unambiguously excludes the number zero.

 

[Chaos Descending]

In military time, midnight is 0000 hours. That's plenty of zeros.

However, midnight is also 2400 hours. It depends on whether you are talking about the end of a given day or the beginning of a given day.

For example, when filling out watchstation logs, the last entry will be something like this "2400: Logs carried over to those dated 20100611" and the first entry on the next set will say "0000: Logs carried over from those dated 20100610".

We should note that Stardate 0.000 is Midnight, January 1, 2323, or something like that.

In military time, midnight is 0000 hours. That's plenty of zeros.

But in the military can you pronounce it with your choice of "nought" and "zero"?

What time is it?

Well, according to my watch it's nought zero zero zero hours.

Yes, but what time is it?

Well now it's nought zero zero one hours.

I will shoot you where you stand!

Actually (in the Navy) we called the "0000" hour "balls". The watch that lasts from 0000 to 0400 is called the "balls to four" watch. If someone asked me what time it was at 0030, I would reply, "It's oh-balls-thirty".

 

[gturner]

In military time, midnight is 0000 hours. That's plenty of zeros.

But in the military can you pronounce it with your choice of "nought" and "zero"?

What time is it?

Well, according to my watch it's nought zero zero zero hours.

Yes, but what time is it?

Well now it's nought zero zero one hours.

I will shoot you where you stand!

Actually (in the Navy) we called the "0000" hour "balls". The watch that lasts from 0000 to 0400 is called the "balls to four" watch. If someone asked me what time it was at 0030, I would reply, "It's oh-balls-thirty".

Well that's as confusing as my noughts!

Shouldn't "0000" hour be "four balls" or "two pair of balls" or "two scrotums" or "gay lovers"? Wouldn't one ball be a "Hitler"?

So your first watch would be "gay lovers to Hitler four scrotum" and at "0030" you would reply, "It's scrotum three Hitler".

 

[trekkiedane]

A mathematician is arguing about lost luggage with the clerk at the customer service desk in an airport.

Mathematician: "You lost one of my suitcases, there should be five!"
Clerk: "Umm... sir... you do actually have five pieces of luggage on your cart"
Mathematician: "nonsense! I counted them myself - see: zero, one, two, three, four!"