12.06.2005

Anno domini

Someone asked me what A.D. means and when it began. Here's what Wikipedia says:

Anno Domini (Latin: "In the Year of the Lord"), or more completely Anno Domini Nostri Iesu Christi ("In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ"), commonly abbreviated AD or A.D., is the designation used to number years in the dominant Christian Era in the world today.

...The Anno Domini system was developed by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus (a Scythian) in Rome in 525, as an outcome of his work on calculating the date of Easter.

...Almost all Biblical scholars believe that Dionysius was incorrect in his calculation, and that the date claimed for Jesus' birth was between 8 BC and 4 BC. The latest bound for the birth of Christ is the death of Herod the Great which occurred in 4 BC.

In case you're wondering, I have no idea what "bound" means in that context. It must be a typo at the Wikipedia site.

7 comments:

welisc said...

WRT the meaning of "bound" in the Wikipedia entry, it looks like the author was thinking of its meaning in computer science, where the lower and upper bounds mean the minimum and maximum lengths of time that a given algorithm will require to compute, which depend on the size of the data set.

Anonymous said...

Wow, thanks for that info. I would've never known that. It sounds like Sci Fi.

Mahndisa S. Rigmaiden said...

12 08 05

Yeah, Tom is right. A bound is simply a time interval. So one could also write: 7< x <9 to show that x ranges from the number seven at the least to the number 9 at the greatest and 7 is the lower bound, while 9 is the upper bound. Good post:) Have a great day! PS. How did the Nanowrimo thing go?

Mahndisa S. Rigmaiden said...

12 08 05

Or a length interval; bound doesn't strictly apply to time, as you can see by my example above! oops:)

Anonymous said...

I finished Nanowrimo. It was an intense month.

Mahndisa S. Rigmaiden said...

12 11 05

Congrats on finishing it; I think you posted about that come to think of it. I think my question was really more like: did you get an award of recognition for your efforts? If not, CONGRATS!!! Anyone who can write fifty thousand words is AOK and maybe a bit eccentric ha ha ha ha ha, but has my respect! Have a great holiday season and take care:) I really like all the topics you have been covering lately, although sometimes due to time at work, I cannot comment:) Keep it up:)

Anonymous said...

The only thing we got as an award was something to post on our website. I should post it on the side.

Thanks for the compliment--it's good to get [positive] feedback.