Humans have lived for over 200,000 years and yet the entire world agrees it’s the year 2020. So, how did we get here?
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The coming new year has been widely heralded as the start of a new decade: the 2020s. But an old timekeeping conundrum has led some to contend we’re celebrating too early and that we should actually wait until Jan. 1, 2021. .
A decade is a period of 10 years — that isn’t disputed. But a glitch in our calendar system creates a problem if you think decades should begin in years ending with a zero. If you continue the pattern back about 2020 years, you run into a major issue.
That’s because there is no “year zero” in our calendar system, explained Craig Callender, a professor of philosophy at UC San Diego who has studied the physics and experience of time.
The lack of a year zero means the only consistent way to measure decades — or centuries or millennia — is to start them in years ending in one: That’s the theory presented in explanations of the debate published by the Farmer’s Almanac, timeanddate.com, the New York Times and others.
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