Why is it when they say " 19th century do they mean the year 1800?

Question

When did it start to be that way , & why ?

Answer 1

If you start with year one, anything from year 1 to 100 is the first century. Anything from 101 to 200 is the second century.

1800 would be the last year of the 18th century. 1801 would be the first year of the 19th.

Answer 2

Actually, it never "started to be".
It's just logical.
It would help a lot if you were looking at a timeline, too.
Well, just think of it this way:
When they started the time all over when there was Christ, AD started at zero. So if they called the 1800's the 18th century, then you would have to call the time period from zero to 99 the "zeroeth century" and of course that dosent exist. They called it the "first century" , which makes a lot of sense, since it was the first century of AD. Now, think of the second century, from 100-199. There's no two's in it, even though it is the second century. It's called that because it WAS the second. 0-99 was the first, 100-199 was the second. Therefore, 1800-1899 was the 19th century. Get it?
I hope you do :]

Answer 3

If we start with the first century, we are looking at the years 0 through 99, the second century would begin with the year 100, the third, with 200, etc, so you see that the number of the years will always be 100 years behind the number of the century.

Answer 4

Good question. I use to wonder the same thing until I looked at your question and realized just now that you don't say someone is 1 year old until they have lived for one year. But according to Christian time telling. There was BC and AD and the years start at zero at the dividing point between them. After 1,000 years you have the first century but all the years before that are smaller than 1,000 but are what make up the first century. Just as 99 cents are just 99 cent until you add one more and it becomes 1 dollar. But all the cents are still part of 1 dollar until you reach the 100 total. It's just a matter of how you look at it. We don't say we are 2 years old until we have lived 24 months so it seems confusing to say 1 century it has been 1,000 years but that's the way we tell time. I'd like to see others explanation to this.

Answer 5

yes it is.

Note; Old Scho; the first century didn't start after the first millennium, it started with the death of Christ ergo 1845 is the 19th century, just as you say you have a half of a dollar or I have a quarter of a dollar, and many years ago It was two bits of a dollar to include a mil of a dollar (1/10 of a penny) We started out at the millennium with 0 of the 21st century now we are 7/100 of the 21 century's completion, at midnight of December 31,2099 we will have completed the 21st century and at 1 second after midnight we will start the 22 century

Answer 6

Chance had that one nailed, 0-100 = First Century, 101-201, second. etc.etc.etc.
The 21rst or Second Milineum did not begin until 2001. That is how some smart guy said it was way long time ago.
I always had troubles with that until it was explained to me also. There is still a missing year in there though.
-99-0BC and +-0>101 , what,,that hurts my brain.

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