answersLogoWhite

0

They're not reversed, exactly. The "B" in "BC" stands for "before." The longer something happens before an event, the higher the number. It's like a countdown to takeoff: T minus 5 hours, T minus 2 hours, T minus 30 minutes, etc. When you count down to a certain time, the higher numbers are the earlier ones.

The BC dates count down to what we might call the year zero (but we don't, we call it the year 1). The event that everything is dated before or after in the calendar now used throughout the world is the birth of Christ. The BC dates count down to that event, measuring time before it, and the AD dates count up afterward.

If you've seen one of those kitchen timers that you can set for, say, an hour, you see it count down from 60 to 0 as time runs out. Some of those timers sound their beep and then start counting up to tell you how long ago zero was. BC and AD work just like that (except that people weren't actually counting down to Christ's birth beforehand, of course--other calendars were in use then).

User Avatar

Wiki User

17y ago

What else can I help you with?