[macintologist]

Sam: Hey, how old are you?

Bob: Hey there. I'm 18 years old.

Sam: Cool! So when are you turning 19?

Bob: On the 16th of September.

Sam: Well on that day I will be sure to wish you a happy birthday!

The stupidity of both Bob and Sam is not something exclusive to them, but is something that all of humanity is responsible for.

Our age flows with time. It is irrational, and immeasurable. In order to simplify this in a conversation with the common man, we by default measure our age in years as a whole number, disregarding the decimals.

Bob told Sam a complete and utter lie. Bob said, "I'm 18 years old." Nothing could be further from the truth. Bob wants to simplify his age. If he were a nerd, he would have said, "I'm 18.5835616438356 years old."

If Bob is at least 18.58 years old, and if Bob wants to round off the decimals to make conversation easier and sound less like a nerd, then shouldn't Bob be rounding up? to 19? After all, by giving our age in the form of a whole number, we are implying that we round in the first place. So why do we always round down?

There are many reasons why humans are collectively stupid, and their insistence on always rounding down their age is just one of them. If Bob had any level of intelligence in him, he would have said "I'm 19 years old." Sadly, Sam is just as guilty as Bob, for not calling him on it. If Sam had realized that Bob's birthday was less than 182 days away (183 on leap years), then he would have called him a liar, and rightly so.

I propose from now we on properly round up or down our ages, and not be stubborn idiots and consistently round down.

Thank you.

[SimpleLife]

Originally Posted by macintologist

Sam: Hey, how old are you?

Bob: Hey there. I'm 18 years old.

Sam: Cool! So when are you turning 19?

Bob: On the 16th of September.

Sam: Well on that day I will be sure to wish you a happy birthday!

The stupidity of both Bob and Sam is not something exclusive to them, but is something that all of humanity is responsible for.

Our age flows with time. It is irrational, and immeasurable. In order to simplify this in a conversation with the common man, we by default measure our age in years as a whole number, disregarding the decimals.

Bob told Sam a complete and utter lie. Bob said, "I'm 18 years old." Nothing could be further from the truth. Bob wants to simplify his age. If he were a nerd, he would have said, "I'm 18.5835616438356 years old."

If Bob is at least 18.58 years old, and if Bob wants to round off the decimals to make conversation easier and sound less like a nerd, then shouldn't Bob be rounding up? to 19? After all, by giving our age in the form of a whole number, we are implying that we round in the first place. So why do we always round down?

There are many reasons why humans are collectively stupid, and their insistence on always rounding down their age is just one of them. If Bob had any level of intelligence in him, he would have said "I'm 19 years old." Sadly, Sam is just as guilty as Bob, for not calling him on it. If Sam had realized that Bob's birthday was less than 182 days away (183 on leap years), then he would have called him a liar, and rightly so.

I propose from now we on properly round up or down our ages, and not be stubborn idiots and consistently round down.

Thank you.

Nope.

The issue is about the age recognized publicly by the anniversary. It is a cultural element. Not a mathematical one. Also, the same argument is used on a legal basis, because it is common usage.

[Patty]

Well if you think about it, 19 rounds up to 20, which on a scale of 100 rounds down to 0.

[Patty]

[SimpleLife]

Originally Posted by Patty

For a new member, you are quite explicit.

[storer]

You. Have. Too. Much. Time.

Go. To. Bed.

[SVass]

I agree with Macintologist! IEEE-STD-754 allows for truncation (always rounding down), rounding (goto nearest even number) and rounding to nearest (and if equal go in random direction). Social Security rounds down to save the government money and I object. (Congress and Bush are thieves!) sam

[wdlove]

Just want to simplify life. Usually after childhood, we just give age in years.

[Stradlater]

Originally Posted by macintologist

Bob told Sam a complete and utter lie. Bob said, "I'm 18 years old." Nothing could be further from the truth. Bob wants to simplify his age. If he were a nerd, he would have said, "I'm 18.5835616438356 years old."

Extreme nerds may quantify it as you have, while children often say "almost 6!" or "5 and a half!" (even if they just turned 5 a few months ago). Kids want to appear older than they are...more mature, etc. Adults, on the other hand, simplify things for the ease of conversation (and your decimal example is not something of ease; it is changing constantly). Conventions hold that when you know how old someone is and when their birthday is, you know what their age is, approximately to your extreme decimal example. It would be stupid to make conversation as complex as the nerd suggests.

Originally Posted by macintologist

If Bob is at least 18.58 years old, and if Bob wants to round off the decimals to make conversation easier and sound less like a nerd, then shouldn't Bob be rounding up? to 19? After all, by giving our age in the form of a whole number, we are implying that we round in the first place. So why do we always round down?

The same reason we won't say it's 2006 in a couple months. A new age marks a new stage, we do not round up because we are NOT that old yet. We are at least as old as we say we are. This is not as mathematical as you make it out to be. This is not a sign of stupidity. Many would consider it stupid to round up in any of these date-based cases.

Then again, I guess the liquor store clerk would be smarter if he sold me alcohol when I turned 20.49999...

[Macfreak7]

If you're that concerned about such precision then you should follow a lunar calender.

[Chuckit]

Think of it like The Price Is Right: You want to claim the highest age possible without going over your actual age.

[jnrjr79]

I see a new defense to try for 20 year old underage drinkers. It won't work, but it's entertaining.

[mitchell_pgh]

What's so wrong with our current method?

As humans, we are constantly "disregarding the decimals." When someone asks for the time, I don't say "It's 1:43 and 34.39482749384923 seconds PM Eastern Standard time on daylight savings time".

I always thought the drinking age being 21 was silly... until I turned 24-25, then it made more sense.

[mitchell_pgh]

Police Officer: "Do you know why I pulled you over?"
You: "No!"
Police Officer: "You were doing 50.1 in a 50, so I rounded up to 100."

[Mithras]

When Daylight Savings Time came around again this year, I said to my wife,
"Instead of one leap day every four years, we should have one leap hour every other month. That way, every two months we'd get a blissful Sunday with an extra hour of sleep!"
I was pretty proud of this idea.

Then my wife pointed out that with my plan, pretty soon we'd have the sun rising at 3pm. Darn.

[meelk]

Originally Posted by macintologist

Sam: Hey, how old are you?

Bob: Hey there. I'm 18 years old.

Sam: Cool! So when are you turning 19?

Bob: On the 16th of September.

Sam: Well on that day I will be sure to wish you a happy birthday!

The stupidity of both Bob and Sam is not something exclusive to them, but is something that all of humanity is responsible for.

Our age flows with time. It is irrational, and immeasurable. In order to simplify this in a conversation with the common man, we by default measure our age in years as a whole number, disregarding the decimals.

Bob told Sam a complete and utter lie. Bob said, "I'm 18 years old." Nothing could be further from the truth. Bob wants to simplify his age. If he were a nerd, he would have said, "I'm 18.5835616438356 years old."

If Bob is at least 18.58 years old, and if Bob wants to round off the decimals to make conversation easier and sound less like a nerd, then shouldn't Bob be rounding up? to 19? After all, by giving our age in the form of a whole number, we are implying that we round in the first place. So why do we always round down?

There are many reasons why humans are collectively stupid, and their insistence on always rounding down their age is just one of them. If Bob had any level of intelligence in him, he would have said "I'm 19 years old." Sadly, Sam is just as guilty as Bob, for not calling him on it. If Sam had realized that Bob's birthday was less than 182 days away (183 on leap years), then he would have called him a liar, and rightly so.

I propose from now we on properly round up or down our ages, and not be stubborn idiots and consistently round down.

Thank you.

after a post like this, add yourself to the stupid list.

[davidflas]

Originally Posted by Patty

[img]http://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/wuerg/vomit-smiley-003.gif</img]

Nice sig patty, reminds me that its about time to re-do mine.. welcome to the boards

[macintologist]

after a post like this, add yourself to the stupid list.

After a post like this, add yourself to the stick-up-yer-ass list.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by mitchell_pgh

Police Officer: "Do you know why I pulled you over?"
You: "No!"
Police Officer: "You were doing 50.1 in a 50, so I rounded up to 100."

Look up the rules for rounding again.


As for age:

The only relevant definition of "age" is "the completion of your XXth year", counting from the date of birth.

At least, that is the phrasing used in each and every age-related law here.

[Eriamjh]

I feel stupid for reading this thread.

[Fonzie]

I'm not sure I quite understood the OP. But hey.. If I did; Why change something that has been going on for years ? We've always done this. Not saying "Hi, I'm 27,4334667832 years old. That would be stupid and unimportant. Let's just keep it like it has always been. Atleast with this age thing.

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally Posted by analogika

Look up the rules for rounding again.


As for age:

The only relevant definition of "age" is "the completion of your XXth year", counting from the date of birth.

At least, that is the phrasing used in each and every age-related law here.

Can't you round the the nearest 100?

[TailsToo]

I want the 10 seconds of my life back that I spent reading this thread!