this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2023
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[–] Augapfel@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

babies are considered a year old on the day they’re born

Is there any useful idea behind this? That sounds completely dumb.

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's just semantics. When you are born, you are in your first year of life, not your zeroth year of life. After a full year, you are one year old. Grammar varies from language to language, and sometimes one feels more natural.

Imagine everyone in English said "I'm in my 32nd year" instead of "I'm 31 years old." Now you meet a foreigner who says the opposite. Translation issues abound!

[–] ssjmarx@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

When you are born, you are in your first year of life, not your zeroth year of life.

There are one type of person in this world. Those that understand arrays, and those that don't.

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Jokes on you, my religion is Fortran ;)

[–] sovietsnake@lemmygrad.ml -1 points 1 year ago

Well, you could have an array starting at zero, some old languages or pseudo code languages do that.

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To be fair, we do the same shit with what century we are in.

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You're absolutely right. But as most people don't measure their age in centuries (yet), it isn't a problem.

I'm hoping the debate emerges when I'm in my 7th century.

[–] HumanPenguin 1 points 1 year ago

Pity. My great-grandmother died at 103. She would often declare. "I'm One hundred and three, you know. " Towards the end. I think If I had thought at the time to say. "You're in your second century" At the time. She would have taken huge pleasure is telling everyone that for her last few months.

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You mean when you're 6 centuries old?

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago