OTTAWA — Canadian Millennium Clock Counts down to the New Year’s of the New Century and New Millennium. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC), the federal agency responsible for official time in Canada, is reminding Canadians that while we have all celebrated the start of the 21st Century this year, the coming New Year’s Eve will mark the official start of the New Millennium and the next century. NRC is also encouraging us to celebrate our country’s impressive history in time measurement and science.
From Sir Sandford Fleming’s invention of Standard Time to the NRC’s pioneering role in the development of cesium atomic clocks, Canada has been at the forefront of setting the time for the world. Because the accuracy of time measurement defines our ability to also measure length, volume, and many other things that underpin international trade, health care, and
environmental protection, Canadians can be very proud of their contributions to this field.
The Canadian Millennium Clock at 100 Sussex Drive in Ottawa, which has
unique links to Canada’s national atomic clocks and was constructed to
celebrate our achievements, is now counting down to midnight New Year’s Eve
to celebrate the arrival of the new Millennium and the 21st Century.
Why does the 3rd Millennium and the 21st Century start on 1 January 2001?
A millennium is an interval of 1000 years and a century is an interval of
100 years. Because there is no year zero, an interval of 1 year has only
elapsed since the start of the era, at the end of the year named 1AD. By a
similar argument 100 years will only have elapsed at the end of the year
100AD. It is therefore clear that 2000 years will only have elapsed at
midnight on 31 December 2000.
So the 3rd Millennium and the 21st Century will begin at the same moment,
namely zero hours on January 1st 2001.
For more information check out the NRC Time website: http://www.nrc.ca/inms/time/whatime.html
