this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (13 children)

Isn't the guy at the zeroith table?

[–] TwilightKiddy 28 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (11 children)

There is no such thing as "zeroith". Does not matter which numbers you slap on the tables, the one with the lowest number will always be the first. The word "first" has nothing to do with indices, it's just an antonym for "last".

[–] sukhmel 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

There's no such thing as "zeroith" because it's called "zeroth — being numbered zero in a series"

This works for building storeys, this would work equally well for tables. The only reason this is not used often is because the series are rarely zero-based in anything that doesn't also want to equate index and offset.

You're right that first may be read as "opposite of last", that would add to the confusion, but that's just natural language not being precise enough.

Edit: spelling

Edit2: also, if you extend that logic, when you're presented with an ordinal number, you would need to first check all the options, sort them, and then apply the position you're asked, that's not really how people would expect ordinal number to be treated, not me, at the very least

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Americans also index their building floors from 1

A two storey American building has floors 1 and 2, where elsewhere they might be ground (zero) and 1.

[–] sukhmel 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not only them, and I'm not here to blame 😅

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Indeed, however the Americans stand out in the anglosphere

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Canada sad.

They always forget about us.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Which standard does Canada use?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

1st floor is the entrance level.

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