Stephen Brooker wrote in message <36e36973.0@news.povray.org>...
>Didn't the ?Roman's? add in days to the calendar along the way when it
>started to get abit out of whack

Yep, Julius Caesar (-> Julian Calendar)

(and didn't someone add in a whole month
>somewhere along the line?)

Yep, Pope Gregor (-> Gergorian Calendar)

>So isn't the whole idea of counting out exactly
>2000 years somewhat flawed to start with?

Nope, because:

The year is defined as the time the earth needs to complete one circle
around the sun (nowadays it is a bit more complicated though ;-)
It is *not* defined as being 365 days long (or whatever number).
The additional days were added for exactly this reason, because the time
around the sun is not 365 days but 365-point-something (go look it up
yourself ;-)

So, given that Jesus was really born on Dec. 24th, 1 A.D., and given that
the number of days added by first the Julian Calendar and then the Gergorian
Calendar was exact, then at New Year 2000, exactly 1999 years A.D. will have
passed: That means: 1999 complete circles of the earth around the sun, which
is not 1999*365 days, but 1999*365-point-something days.

Johannes.

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