This condition is diagnosed as middle-endianness. Seriously. It comes from computer science where bytes are arranged according to their size. If the order has larger ones at the front, it's known as big-endian and so too are dates formatted with the years first (see the likes of China and Mongolia in the map above).

这种情况被诊断为“中心字节顺序”。说真的，它来自计算机科学，是根据他们的大小排列的字节数。如果命令有较大部分在前面，它被称为“大端字节序”(见上面的中国和蒙古喜好的地图)。

Even more bizarrely, computer scientists got their inspiration for the term 'endianness' from Jonathan Swift's 1726 epic Gulliver’s Travels. In the fictional kingdom of Lilliput, people have to open their soft-boiled eggs at the small end (it's a royal decree). While in Blefuscu, eggs are cracked from the other end.

更奇怪的是，计算机科学家是从乔纳森·斯威夫特1726年的史诗《格列佛游记》中得到“字节顺序”一词的灵感。在虚构的小人国的王国里，人们必须从鸡蛋的小底端打开他们半熟的鸡蛋(这是一个皇家法令)。而在布莱夫斯库，人们则从另一端把鸡蛋打破。

Jonathan Swift, like the computer scientists, was basically saying that systems are needed to organise even the most irrelevant seeming of things. As Danny Cohen writes "Swift's point is that the difference between breaking the egg at the little-end and breaking it at the big-end is trivial… but we insist that everyone must do it in the same way, to avoid anarchy. Since the difference is trivial we may choose either way, but a decision must be made."

乔纳森·斯威夫特，像计算机科学家一样，基本上是说系统是需要组织的，即使是那些表面上最无关紧要的东西。丹尼·科恩写道“斯威夫特的观点是，从小端和大端打破鸡蛋的区别都是微不足道的…但我们坚持认为，每个人都必须用同样的方式，以免混乱。虽然我们可能选择任一方式的区别是微不足道的，但是，我们必须做出决定。”

But why did Americans choose the way they did? Actually, the dozens and dozens of chat forums on the topic reveals that people don't really seem to have an answer. (The following picture) It seems that Googlers are far more puzzled by other American choices.

但是为什么美国人选择他们所表达的方式？实际上，很多很多的关于这个主题的聊天论坛显示，人们似乎没有真正答案。（下图）看起来很多人搜谷歌都更困惑于美国的其他选择。

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