Week to Century

The 7-day week was likely first used in ancient Mesopotamia, linked to the 7 classical celestial bodies visible to the naked eye: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. These gave the days their names (still visible in English: Sun-day, Moon-day, Saturn-day; and in French: Lundi/Moon, Mardi/Mars, Mercredi/Mercury, Jeudi/Jupiter, Vendredi/Venus). The 7-day week spread through Jewish, Roman, and Islamic calendars and eventually became global.

Yes. Ancient Rome used an 8-day market cycle (nundinae). The French Revolutionary calendar used a 10-day decade. The Soviet Union tried 5-day and 6-day continuous work cycles in 1929–1940, eliminating the shared day off to maximize factory output. All alternatives eventually failed: the 7-day week is synchronised with religious practice (Sabbath, Friday prayers, Sunday worship) and is biologically suited to human work-rest rhythms.

ISO 8601 defines Monday as the first day of the week (Day 1) and Sunday as the last (Day 7). This is standard across the EU, UK, and most of the world. The US, Canada, Australia, and many Latin American countries traditionally treat Sunday as day 1 — as reflected in US calendars and spreadsheet software defaults. When writing code that spans regions, always check whether the week starts on Sunday (0) or Monday (1).

Gestational age in weeks is far more precise than months because months have variable lengths. A 36-week pregnancy and a 40-week pregnancy are in different developmental categories (preterm vs. full-term), but both might be described as '9 months.' Clinicians need week-level precision for lung maturity, organ development, and intervention decisions. Ultrasound measurements are calibrated to gestational weeks, not months. The 40-week count begins from the last menstrual period, not conception.

A common year has 52 weeks and 1 day; a leap year has 52 weeks and 2 days. Under ISO 8601, each year has either 52 or 53 numbered weeks (Week 1 is the week containing the year's first Thursday). Years with 53 weeks occur about every 5–6 years. In 2015 and 2020, ISO Week 53 existed. This affects fiscal calendars: companies on a "4-4-5" or "52-week fiscal year" must reconcile the 53rd week when it appears.

The 1920s confidently predicted personal autogyros (helicopter-planes) would replace cars within decades — they never became practical for commuters. Pneumatic tube mail was expected to connect every home; it peaked in the 1930s and vanished. Radium-infused products (water, toothpaste, suppositories) were marketed as health miracles until people started dying. Moving sidewalks, demonstrated at the 1900 Paris Exposition, were expected to replace urban walking. Airships were the "future of travel" until the Hindenburg (1937). Meanwhile, technologies nobody hyped — antibiotics, containerised shipping, transistors — quietly reshaped civilisation without fanfare.

Carbon-14 dating (radiocarbon dating) is reliable for organic material up to ~50,000 years (roughly 500 centuries). Precision is typically ±40–200 years for samples from the last 2,000 years, improving to ±centuries for older samples. Calibration against dendrochronology (tree rings) sharpens accuracy significantly. The method measures the decay of ¹⁴C (half-life 5,730 years) — after ~8 half-lives (46,240 years), too little ¹⁴C remains to measure reliably.

The Westinghouse generators installed at Niagara Falls in 1895 ran until 2006 — 111 years. Many Victorian-era water mains and sewer systems in London (built 1858–1875) are still in service. Stradivarius violins from 1700 are still played. The Antikythera mechanism (ancient Greek astronomical computer, ~87 BCE) still demonstrates correct gear ratios. Some Japanese Buddhist temples have been maintained continuously for 14 centuries.

IPCC projections (2021) estimate 0.3–1.0 m of sea level rise by 2100 (0–1 century from now) under moderate to high emissions scenarios. Under worst-case scenarios involving ice sheet instability, multi-meter rise within 1–2 centuries is possible. The last time CO₂ was at current levels (around 3 million years ago), sea levels were 15–25 m higher — though the adjustment to that equilibrium takes centuries to millennia.

The University of Bologna (founded 1088) is the oldest continuously operating university — now over 9 centuries old. The Papacy has continued as an institution for approximately 20 centuries. The oldest continuously operating business is Kongo Gumi, a Japanese temple builder founded in 578 CE — 14+ centuries, though it was absorbed into a larger company in 2006. The British Crown Jewels include items spanning 10 centuries of continuous use.