What is exact? 1

[tsdragon]

Just read this in a survey site:

Please type in your exact age below. (Type in a whole number.)

I will be 50 in about 2 months. My exact age is neither 49 nor 50.

I guess "exact" is in the mind of the surveyor.

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[AnotherHiggins]

Well, if they want to you to use a whole number to represent your 'exact' age, they surely don't want years. If you are turning 50 on Feb 6, 2006 (exactly two months from now), you could respond with 18,201 days old.

Or 436,824 hours.

Or 26,209,440 minutes.

But I suppose the only way to be 'exact' AND to use a whole number would be to answer that you are 1,572,566,400 seconds old (give or take for your actual, 'exact', time of birth, obviously.

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue][/tt]

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[Toshilap]

'Not exactly 50' would be exactly how old you are...

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I finally got it all together and forgot where I put it.

 

[columb]

One's 'exact' age is an interesting concept. Time has many fractal properties. At a very basic level when do we start. First breath? That's as arbitary as any other point you wish to choose.
However, if the question were rephrased 'exact age to the nearest complete year' then I would only have any problems around 4am BST on the 24th April.

Columb Healy

 

[GwydionM]

I suspect it's to catch people who'd give a lower figure and think this was allowable. I might put '50' rather than 54 on the grounds it is correct to the nearest decade. Some people will do such things.

It's also normal in British law to use the number of whole years since birth to determine whether someone is 18, 21, 25, 65 or whatever. Sometimes you need to work out whether the person's birthday will have passed by the time some scheme starts.

Other cultures use different methods. Sometimes a newborn baby gets their age calculated from their presumed conception. I think Chinese culture rates people as 1 year old at birth, and so on.

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An old man who lives in the UK

 

[gmmastros]

If you asked, my grandmother would have told you she was 39 years old. This was her response for the last 32 years of her life.

-George

Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause. - Fortune cookie wisdom

 

[SantaMufasa]

George, your grandmother's response is similar to my wife's response since she was 30 years old (20 years ago):

I'm "plenty-nine".

John, your response reminded me of John Travolta's instantaneous, off-the-top-of-his head response (as George Malley) in the movie, Phenomenon, when the interrogator asked his age.


Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
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Providing low-cost remote Database Admin services]
Click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips if you use Oracle in Utah USA.

 

[ChrisHunt]

I'd ask exactly why they want to know?

I'm reminded of this line from The Importance of Being Earnest:

Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years. Lady Dumbleton is an instance in point. To my own knowledge she has been thirty-five ever since she arrived at the age of forty, which was many years ago now.

I turn 40 next year, so it's perhaps time to start lying about my own age...

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[tsdragon]

I must have been mistaken about my age anyway. I talked to my youngest brother yesterday and he insists that he is only 28. Since I know I was six years old when he was born, I must be only 34 (sure seems like longer though).

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[columb]

There's a wonderful freedom (or so it seems to me) in accepting that I'm a bald, middle-aged, slightly overweight man and that being coy about my age, my weight or my hair is simply pointless. When I was young I used to worry about growing old. Now I'm in my fifties I'm enjoying every minute of it - and I still haven't grown old!

Columb Healy

 

[tsdragon]

I think you're right, Columb. For a 34-year-old I'm in terrible shape. For an almost-50-year-old I'm in pretty good shape. I think I'll stick with my real age, and my little brother can get used to being 6 years younger than 50. No matter what I age I am, or say I am, I'm still a big kid at heart anyway, so it really isn't important.

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
I usually say that I am in the neighbordhood of 50..


( I fail to mention that that neighborhood was torn down 14 years ago )







To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[CajunCenturion]

I'm in the neighborhood of 29.

Did I mention that it's a rather large, and ever-growing, neighborhood?

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[sleipnir214]

CC:
I've seen your grey hair. I'd say you were in the suburbs of 29.

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[CajunCenturion]

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[grande]

I'm 19!

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Just call me Captain Awesome.

 

[BJCooperIT]

I am 36 ... in hexadecimal! Wait a minute, who just got out their calculator?

[sup]Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.[/sup][sup] ~George Bernard Shaw[/sup]
Consultant Developer/Analyst Oracle, Forms, Reports & PL/SQL (Windows)
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[flapeyre]

I'm x'32' (EBCDIC).

Feles mala! Cur cista non uteris? Stramentum novum in ea posui!

 

[SilentAiche]

I've seen your grey hair.

You have an elderly rabbit? Hoppy birthday!

Tim

[blue]______________________________________________________________
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[AnotherHiggins]

For a 34-year-old I'm in terrible shape. For an almost-50-year-old I'm in pretty good shape.

My mom has long taken that view. She used to kid that she'd rather tell people that she was older than she really is, not younger. After all, she would rather people think she looked amazing for a seventy-year-old rather than thinking she looked like crap for a forty-year-old.

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