Time: If 1 century is 100 years?

Question

why are people saying this is the 21st century. This is 2000 so wouldn't it be the 20th century? Why don't they also count the years of BC.

Answer 1

Years 1-100 were the first century, 101-200 the second, and so on. Therefore 2001-2100 is the 21st century.

This is why purists argued that the millenium occured on 01-01-2001, and not 01-01-2000.

As for BC, or BCE as it's currently known, we could go back as far as you would like. The earth was formed billions of years ago. I doubt you want to write the date as September 25, 5,000,000,000.

Answer 2

This is indeed the 21st century. the reason it is not the 20th is because the years before 100 a.d. are considered century #1. This would make 100s the 2nd century, the 200s the 3rd century, the 300s the 4th century, and so on until the present. Centuries are always one number ahead of the groups of years that they represent. So if someone was talking about an event that happened in the 18th century, you need to know it took place in the 1700s.

Calculating centuries to years always get me confused too. I can never remember to go one forward or one backward!

Answer 3

bc counted down to zero which indicated the birth of christ. and ad or anno domino(in the year of our lord) counts up from zero. and look at it this way from year1 ad to year100 ad is 100 years or one century. it is the first century and the same for the year 101ad to200 ad and that is the second century and so on till you arrive at the year1901 to the year 2000 (BOTH AD) AND THAT IS THE 20TH CENTURY AND THE YEARS 2001 TO 2100 BOTH AD WILL BE THE 21ST CENTURY. IT'S NOT REALLY COMPLICATED AT ALL.

Answer 4

well, since the turn from BC to AD (or, if you are an academic, from BCE to CE), the years started counting from year 1.

years 1-100 = the first century
years 101-200 = the second century

And so on.

Continue this pattern, and years 2001-2100 (where we are now) = the 21st century.

If you counted the years BC, from where would you start counting?

Current dates all technically have AD ("year of Our Lord") or CE (Common Era) after them, even when we don't write them that way.

Answer 5

Everyone else has covered the first part.

They don't count the years of BC because our calendar starts at year 1. You don't honestly think that the Romans and ancient Egyptians measured their years by our modern calendar, do you?

In fact, our calendar didn't come into use until a papal decree in 1582 (by Pope Gregory XIII). That's when they decided that Christ's birth would be the starting point. Our calendar is a variation of the Julian Calendar begun by Julius Caesar...which was in turn a modified version of the Roman Calendar.

Answer 6

up to 100 was thw 1st century

up to 200 was the 2nd century

up to 1900 was the 19th century

up to 2000 was the 20 th century

up to 2100 is the 21st century