Why do Americans write their dates down backwards?

[Tinneh]

we Americans drive on the correct side of the road (we invented the car so we get to make the rules)

I believe the only countries that still drive on the left side of the road are Brittian and... India? Maybe a few more, but not many. So when it comes to roads, Britian is the odd one out, and the date thing is kinda annoying, I guess? But it's easy to translate, though I would wish that you yanks started the metric system, your military does when measuring distances, one click = one kilomter

This [http://www.lolzllc.com/work/WhatSideOfTheRoad] might clear things up.

 

[vento 231]

I believe the only countries that still drive on the left side of the road are Brittian and... India? Maybe a few more, but not many. So when it comes to roads, Britian is the odd one out, and the date thing is kinda annoying, I guess? But it's easy to translate, though I would wish that you yanks started the metric system, your military does when measuring distances, one click = one kilomter

First of all, what in hell is a click, second America just likes to be an individual so leave us alone and don't pay attention if it irks you that badly.

 

[Caligulove]

to me, I find the Month more important in determining, immediately, what season or time of the year it is.

 

[UberNoodle]

I'll concede that the way we write our dates down is ass backwards, if you'll admit that you drive on the wrong side of the road.

Neither side is 'right' or wrong. Both rules have very real and logical historical origins, just as both means of writing dates have real and logical origins. However, driving on the left or right doesn't have any obvious benefit over the other. Writing the date in a non-escalating order, however, does pose problems for sorting and archiving. So really, both systems are inefficient for that.

 

[j0frenzy]

You're ALL wrong, this is the internationally approved standard which is FAR superior:

2010-04-05

that's April 5th.

See it's just like numbers like (picks a random number) 480, the most significant digit, the "4" in the position to denote the number of hundreds, the largest unit, is on the left where it will be read first and be considered first.

It is vitally important when looking at a date the most immediately obvious thing is the year for many reasons:

-in Excel style databases, auto sort will sort them into year, rather than by day of month or month which is useless.
-you won't possibly misread the first digit, and it's more important to be in the right year than the right month.
-ease of writing, people need to think correspondingly longer to remember finer dates, remembering the year hardly takes any effort, month, takes a bit of thought especially near the end/beginning of a month, and day you need to recall recently or glance at your watch/phone.
-the dashes are much clearer and indicate it is the international format, as with "05/02/2010" it is not immediately obvious if it is the US or UK standard.
-international format is not "owned" by any country, patriotism doesn't come into it
-it is the standard format for serious business

one good feature of the international date format is for dates that have become names of events, like 9/11, they remain in the same order, as it would be 2001-09-11 and still be pronounced the same. So no drama there.

So, stop being a tool and start using the International Date format!

You use some really bad assumptions in your reasoning. Yes, having a all your dates start with the year is important if the year is the most important piece of information. However, if you are looking at several things that occur within the same year or even the same month, it can be kind of annoying to have the year first. Importance is deemed by situation. I don't get why having the year first would first has any correspondence to writing out the date. You know what happens when I am trying to think of the date? I stop and think of the date. Also, since we are not in the early 20th century, I don't think anyone cares if any country own a date system or not. The best reason I can guess about why Americans use one system and Europeans another for their date system? Because no one cares. Also, having any one consistent system eliminates the whole problem of figuring out which date system a date uses. Your system is only superior because it eliminates the ambiguity while several systems are still in use. I can just as easily argue that everyone should use the European system to eliminate the ambiguity in dates. Not saying that it is not a fair system, but your reasons are kind of flawed.
OT: I have no real idea why we use it. I don't really care. I use what I was raised on and what makes sense to use.

 

[Guitar Gamer]

Americans do a lot of shit backwards for no apparent reason.

Seriously, why are we the only country that drives on the right side of the road, write dates month, day, year and don't use the metric system?

Canada writes it's date like that and drives like that.
Of course we were polite with our independence so Britain still invites us to Christmas dinner.
We have to provide potatoes from Prince Edward island though...

 

[orangeapples]

converting from our American standard to metric sucks so hard. Heck, converting from American to American sucks:
1 Gallon = 4 quarts = 8 Pints = 128 fl oz
1 mile = 1760 yards = 5280 feet = 63,360 inches
1 ton = 2000 pounds = 32000 ounces

metric is so much nicer -_-

[edit]

we have our standard date month-day-year: April 5, 2010 : 4/5/2010 : 4-5-2010
but we also have this MLA format some of us are trained to use which looks day-month-year: 5 April 2010

 

[PunkyMcGee]

I believe the only countries that still drive on the left side of the road are Brittian and... India? Maybe a few more, but not many. So when it comes to roads, Britian is the odd one out, and the date thing is kinda annoying, I guess? But it's easy to translate, though I would wish that you yanks started the metric system, your military does when measuring distances, one click = one kilomter

we tried to convert to metric in the 70's but it didn't fly. maybe we could teach our kids again, maybe

 

[Slayer_2]

I have no idea. To be as different from Britain as possible?

 

[The Austin]

I honestly think that Americans are the "individuals" of the world. We refuse to conform with ANYTHING.

 

[Hashime]

I know Canadians write the date "Backwards" and "Forwards", as well as drive on the right side of the road. I personally write "day, month, year," but it is really semantics. As for the side of the road that one drives on, I believe that the position of the shifter is a prime concern. The majority of the population is right handed, most want to shift with their dominant hand. I as a lefty know the pain of shifting with my other hand.

 

[orangeapples]

also, don't airline pilots, regardless of country they are flying over have to speak in English?

like a French pilot flying over France much communicate with the tower in English?

W000T!!! GO AMERICA!!!

 

[UberNoodle]

I believe the only countries that still drive on the left side of the road are Brittian and... India? Maybe a few more, but not many. So when it comes to roads, Britian is the odd one out, and the date thing is kinda annoying, I guess? But it's easy to translate, though I would wish that you yanks started the metric system, your military does when measuring distances, one click = one kilomter

I agree that metric is more efficient and logical and that is why the military use it. I believe that in the UK and Commonwealth countries, Metric and Imperial still co-exist in some contexts. Interestingly though, a 'click' has much less to do with the metric system and more to do with idiom. With the meter on a car that measures distance, each major increment is a 'click'. That means that were the idiom to be adopted, it could refer to any uniform measurement. 3 clicks could easily be used to mean 3 miles.

 

[Aurora219]

It's the whole idealism thing, isn't it? Like straight roads to make building simpler. They write dates to make reading them simpler.

Someone once told me that American as a language is English simplified so the Americans don't have to think as hard.

I can often agree with that (though not the reason, don't worry - I'm not calling you all thick!) but just to play devil's advocate I threw in a counter-argument;

car - automobile
lift - elevator
flat - apartment

I agree that metric is more efficient and logical and that is why the military use it. I believe that in the UK and Commonwealth countries, Metric and Imperial still co-exist in some contexts. Interestingly though, a 'click' has much less to do with the metric system and more to do with idiom. With the meter on a car that measures distance, each major increment is a 'click'. That means that were the idiom to be adopted, it could refer to any uniform measurement. 3 clicks could easily be used to mean 3 miles.

Here in the UK we use a horrible mix of the two. But actually, if you think about it, imperial measurements make a whole lot more sense. For example: A metric measurement of 10 can be divided by 1, 2, 5 and 10. An imperial measurement of 12 can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. This makes it a lot more flexible for marketing, measuring and the like.

And kinda why it was invented in the first place..

 

[PunkyMcGee]

It's the whole idealism thing, isn't it? Like straight roads to make building simpler. They write dates to make reading them simpler.

Someone once told me that American as a language is English simplified so the Americans don't have to think as hard.

I can often agree with that (though not the reason, don't worry - I'm not calling you all thick!) but just to play devil's advocate I threw in a counter-argument;

car - automobile
lift - elevator
flat - apartment

there are SOOO many more different words we use than you guys across the Atlantic. i watch the BBC America Chanel so i can figure most of them

 

[UberNoodle]

I know Canadians write the date "Backwards" and "Forwards", as well as drive on the right side of the road. I personally write "day, month, year," but it is really semantics. As for the side of the road that one drives on, I believe that the position of the shifter is a prime concern. The majority of the population is right handed, most want to shift with their dominant hand. I as a lefty know the pain of shifting with my other hand.

But wouldn't using your dominant hand to steer be much more valuable and precise? Your dominant hand and arm are not only stronger but have better control, which would be better served at the wheel rather than off.

Either side of the road works though. The original was left due to horses and battle, and the latter idea was right due to revolution and easier cart loading.

 

[Spaghetti]

I came up with a silly little theory behind this that is likely to be far from the truth and totaly wrong. But I'll share it any way
Maybe it has something to do with the way we say it. Most of the people I know in the UK will say "It is the 5th of December". This translates into 5/12
While most of the American's I know say "It's December 5th" Which translates to 12/5.

This is probably wrong and it's based on a vague observation...but it's something right?!?!

 

[Treblaine]

You're ALL wrong, this is the internationally approved standard which is FAR superior:

2010-04-05

that's April 5th.

See it's just like numbers like (picks a random number) 480, the most significant digit, the "4" in the position to denote the number of hundreds, the largest unit, is on the left where it will be read first and be considered first.

It is vitally important when looking at a date the most immediately obvious thing is the year for many reasons:

-in Excel style databases, auto sort will sort them into year, rather than by day of month or month which is useless.
-you won't possibly misread the first digit, and it's more important to be in the right year than the right month.
-ease of writing, people need to think correspondingly longer to remember finer dates, remembering the year hardly takes any effort, month, takes a bit of thought especially near the end/beginning of a month, and day you need to recall recently or glance at your watch/phone.
-the dashes are much clearer and indicate it is the international format, as with "05/02/2010" it is not immediately obvious if it is the US or UK standard.
-international format is not "owned" by any country, patriotism doesn't come into it
-it is the standard format for serious business

one good feature of the international date format is for dates that have become names of events, like 9/11, they remain in the same order, as it would be 2001-09-11 and still be pronounced the same. So no drama there.

So, stop being a tool and start using the International Date format!

You use some really bad assumptions in your reasoning. Yes, having a all your dates start with the year is important if the year is the most important piece of information. However, if you are looking at several things that occur within the same year or even the same month, it can be kind of annoying to have the year first. Importance is deemed by situation. I don't get why having the year first would first has any correspondence to writing out the date. You know what happens when I am trying to think of the date? I stop and think of the date. Also, since we are not in the early 20th century, I don't think anyone cares if any country own a date system or not. The best reason I can guess about why Americans use one system and Europeans another for their date system? Because no one cares. Also, having any one consistent system eliminates the whole problem of figuring out which date system a date uses. Your system is only superior because it eliminates the ambiguity while several systems are still in use. I can just as easily argue that everyone should use the European system to eliminate the ambiguity in dates. Not saying that it is not a fair system, but your reasons are kind of flawed.
OT: I have no real idea why we use it. I don't really care. I use what I was raised on and what makes sense to use.

You aren't making any sense.

"Yes, having a all your dates start with the year is important if the year is the most important piece of information."

Taxes are done annually, awards are issued annually, everything is done annually. I mean it is PRETTY RARE that you'd want all the months from your data set going as far back as possible ordered together. So wonderful, I now know what happened every march from 1987 to 2006 as they are ordered next to each other, how utterly useless as no trend reoccurs that regularly.

If You want to order dates sequentially you MUST sort by year and it helps SO MUCH if that is at the beginning of the date.

"You know what happens when I am trying to think of the date? I stop and think of the date."

No time to stop and think, it's called efficiency. It's the little things that count.

"Your system The international Date Format is only superior because it eliminates the ambiguity while several systems are still in use."

That's a pretty damn good reason why we should all use it. Reduction of ambiguity is pretty useful you know, it saves time and hassle for everyone

"I can just as easily argue that everyone should use the European system to eliminate the ambiguity in dates."

No, far better we all adopt a new neutral standard. There are a surprising number of people who will say shit like "I won't use that Euro-trash" or "I will not kowtow to American standards". While you are at it you can re-read the advantages I have already listed and maybe a second reading (no skimming) then more of the points may register.

Cars don't have to all go one the same side of the road for UK and USA because there are no direct road links, even with the rest of Europe road travel is limited between Britain.

But with the internet and electronic revolution, dates are coming into contact far more often and it IS causing confusion and misunderstanding.

 

[Greeboz]

I actually do it D/M/Y. I guess it's just an East Coast thing.