mikb wrote:Tuur wrote:Warmonger wrote:Normal people count from 1. Only computers (and programmers) count from 0.
So you were 1 year old at time of birth?
You're not 1 until your first year has been completed, That is true. However, few people say a baby is 0 years old, rather the baby is considered to be newborn, 1 hour old, 1 day old, 10 days old, 1 month old, 6 months old and so on. Until they're 1 year olds, maybe referring to half years. See a pattern there with the omission of 0?
Zero is
not commonly noted, but is assumed. We're talking about language, not Math proofs. If your experience is different please share some anecdotes. I'm genuinely interested to hear.
Thinking about this some more (inspired by
Tuur's comment above) I would say that we are actually comparing apples and oranges.. or at least different coloured apples... because we are trying to compare two counting systems with the same unit of measure, but two different reference points.
Bringing this close to home, in audio if you refer the the absolute volume of something in decibels without any reference point, it doesn't have any meaning. For example 0dBSPL is the approximately the quietest sound a human can hear. OdBFS is the loudest sound you can have before clipping occurs. 0dB with one reference can put you to sleep and with the other reference can break your eardrums.
For the counting of years example by
Tuur - the two references are based on completion and beginning. Your age is determined by a reference of completion - you start at 0 and since then what have you completed. You count, "I have completed a day, a week, month, year, etc."
But the 1st year starts at the moment you are born, not when it ends. You can count "this is the beginning of my first hour, first day, week, year, etc" ... So this reference is a reference of when things start (not end) - which I see as the same reference used for music.