• ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    3 days ago

    Measuring tools started from 0 way before the digital era. A clock is a measuring tool. The reason is, people were too used to saying “12 o’clock” and seeing a 0 would throw them off

    • renzhexiangjiao@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 days ago

      Measuring tools started from 0 way before the digital era

      that’s true, but when you’re measuring something the value you get is a cardinal, not an ordinal. I agree that we have been using 0 as a cardinal for a long time. however, we’ve been using 0 as an ordinal only since 1950s

      people think of time as a sequence of events, hence there’s 1st (1 o’clock), 2nd (2 o’clock) and so on until the 12th (12 o’clock)