• lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    IMO the reason is that Julius Caesar reformed the Roman Calendar into one with 365 days and then Pope Gregory XIII also had a go at the leap years. Without this epic collab our ages in years would be counted differently.

    • Eheran@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Unless someone is just about to be 18, how would it matter? Even if the calendar is off by a whole month each year, at the age of 15 (our time) you would be 13.75 or 16.25 years old, depending on a missing or additional month.

      • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        yes, but you’re also disregarding all the shifting going on until the year of your birth. you would have been born closer or further to the end of a year adding or removing up to another year.

        • Eheran@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          It only matters if the person is already close to 18. The same way a person today could be 17 only because that year is a leap year and the 18. birthday is one day later because of that. But it hardly matters, that is the point, since 18 is arbitrary to begin with.

          • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            Yeah, you’re right. It’s only significant after thousands of years. Like someone born on Jul 11 1024 in our calendar would be 1000 years old, but in the Julian calendar they would become 1000 years old next Julian month (our Jul 18, so it’s just like a week difference in 1k years), if the calculator isn’t wrong.

  • pyre@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    due to the number of years that have passed since my birth being less than 18.

  • OopsAllTwix@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 months ago

    This reminds me of an old Mad magazine “Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions”. What do you attribute your long life to? The fact that I haven’t died yet.