Digit Grouping

[Animeniax]

They aim for 1.000.000 members? We're gonna need more moderators.

Still cracks me up how you europeans use periods where you should use commas. Periods are too final to be used in the middle of a number.

Welcome to all the new people. Hopefully you find this place welcoming and decide to stick around a while, particularly the females.

[Sapphire]

Wait, they don't seriously use periods, do they?! What about decimals?!

Or do they switch it? O_O

Oh, apparently its (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_mark#Examples_of_use):

Spain: 1.282.394'234
England/US: 1, 282, 394.234
Some Others: 1.282.394,234

According to a friend. Mind fuck!

[Animeniax]

Wait, they don't seriously use periods, do they?! What about decimals?!

Or do they switch it? O_O

Oh, apparently its (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_mark#Examples_of_use):

Spain: 1.282.394'234
England/US: 1, 282, 394.234
Some Others: 1.282.394,234

According to a friend. Mind fuck!
Yes, Euros use periods where Americans use commas, and commas where we use periods. Completely senseless. I think they just do it to spite us.

[Buffalobiian]

Aussies win for once.

AU: 1 282 394.234

Before I was taught this in school though, I was always using:

Buff: 1' 282' 394.234

[Animeniax]

How is that winning? So your numbers look like 12334345436.2424, good luck reading that.

With commas every thousand, it makes it much easier to read quickly: 12,334,345,436.2424 which is 12 billion, 334 million, 345 thousand, 436 point 2424.

[shinta|hikari]

Ithasspaces.

[Animeniax]

Some programming languages don't recognize spaces so good luck when Y2K happens in whatever year it happens because of your spaces.

[Kraco]

That's quite enough already about decimals in the introduction thread...

[Sapphire]

Let's see how long we can keep this conversation going.

[enkoujin]

Who on Earth uses comma and period separations nowadays?

Really, no one. No one should even be paying attention to that much detail for statistics unless they had a bad case of OCD.

Terms like "5.77 million seconds", for example is the convention for the modern populace.

By scientific and engineering standards, scientific notation is the way to (which is also better for nations' youth to encourage them into the fields of science; China's really competitive in this department).

[Sapphire]

I can't see how using scientific notation encourages one to devote their life to science. Wouldn't encouraging them to have inquisitive minds do that, instead?

You can only be so precise with that way, too. You're going to have to use commas for small numbers in speech unless you're doing straight up calculations. LOLLL, I'm thinking about someone saying, "There are 5.832 x 10^5 people in the stadium" makes me giggle. And even then you have to use a dot.

Do Europeans say "dot" or "point" when they use commas instead?! Can-not-comprehend.

[Animeniax]

When I first saw this thread, I thought it was one of those groupon deals, or quibids, or bitcoins. Weird. Why are you up at this hour, Sapphy dear?

[Sapphire]

I don't know. I have finals to study for. Make me go to bed.

[enkoujin]

I can't see how using scientific notation encourages one to devote their life to science. Wouldn't encouraging them to have inquisitive minds do that, instead?

No.


You can only be so precise with that way, too. You're going to have to use commas for small numbers in speech unless you're doing straight up calculations. LOLLL, I'm thinking about someone saying, "There are 5.832 x 10^5 people in the stadium" makes me giggle. And even then you have to use a dot.

Five-point-eight-three-two times ten to the five (ten syllables).

Five thousand eight hundred thirty two (nine syllables).

In this situation, your example works out, but if you're talking about numbers greater than 10^4, then this notation is easier to read/write and shorter to say.

That or consider implementing SI-metric prefix units to everything; e.g. 7 G-people (giga-people/billion) living on earth.

[Animeniax]

I don't know. I have finals to study for. Make me go to bed.
Science says if you get a good night's sleep after studying, you retain the information better.

[Buffalobiian]

Do Europeans say "dot" or "point" when they use commas instead?! Can-not-comprehend.

Point. Because no one should be saying "dot". But seriously, people say "dot"?

The only times I've used "dot" in numbers is when I'm talking about websites or IPs. (Scatch that last part. I use "point" for IPs as well.)

[Animeniax]

The civilized world says "dot" between IP octets.

If you said "point" you'd be using it like it's a total value instead of 4 separate values tied together.

[Sapphire]

No.

Sure it would. The scientific method is about finding answers to your questions. If you encourage people to want to ask questions and answer them in a rational manner, you're training young scientists, are you not? Most people already know how to write numbers, scientific notation is merely a different format. The difference is getting people to learn with them...


In this situation, your example works out, but if you're talking about numbers greater than 10^4, then this notation is easier to read/write and shorter to say.

That or consider implementing SI-metric prefix units to everything; e.g. 7 G-people (giga-people/billion) living on earth.I feel like exponential form is harder to visualize than just saying the number, though.

SI-metric prefix units sounds cool.



Science says if you get a good night's sleep after studying, you retain the information better.

I really want to go on a polyphasic sleep cycle.

[Buffalobiian]

cut-pasted edit:

edit:


In this situation, your example works out, but if you're talking about numbers greater than 10^4, then this notation is easier to read/write and shorter to say.But not really easier to comprehend. Languages all have some sort of word for the various place values (tens, hundreds, thousands etc), and we think in languages, not numbers.

Scientific notation would make things more universal for everyone and remove any confusion people may have with numbers (the next place value after Thousand in English is Million, 10^6, while in Chinese and Japanese at least it's "mahn", 10^4, just as one example where language convention differences can be confusing), but that's already being used where it matters anyway (scientific journals etc).

[Assertn]

Some programming languages don't recognize spaces so good luck when Y2K happens in whatever year it happens because of your spaces.

Programming languages also don't use commas for digit grouping....

[Kraco]

Do Europeans say "dot" or "point" when they use commas instead?! Can-not-comprehend.

Why would we? When you use comma, you say "comma" (in whatever language the person speaks, obviously).

Over here space commonly serves as the thousands separator. Period was used as well but I feel like it's use has considerably lessened if not disappeared, probably due to people getting used to it as the decimal mark in the internets and generally American/English texts.

[Animeniax]

Programming languages also don't use commas for digit grouping....

Oh, so all programming languages are that way, are they? That's like saying all brown people eat beans. You racist bastard.


Over here space commonly serves as the thousands separator. Period was used as well but I feel like it's use has considerably lessened if not disappeared, probably due to people getting used to it as the decimal mark in the internets and generally American/English texts. All I gotta say is, "USA, USA, USA!"

[Xelbair]

Programming languages also don't use commas for digit grouping....
Yeah, they don't use anything, unless you mean decimal parts.

Most people don't separate thousands, etc when they are writing them by hand, at least over here, and if someone seriously feels the need to do so blank space is enough.
Officially 'comma' or ' , ' is used to separate decimal part over here but it is really a liberal thing - comma and dot/point is used commonly and they are interchangeable.

Hmm I think that this thread should also cover our traditional Troll-topic - day/month/year writing system.

[Sapphire]

I actually use 24 HR time on my cell phone because it makes me feel cool.

MM/DD vs DD/MM is annoying, I just try to guess which one people mean using logic...

[Buffalobiian]

I actually use 24 HR time on my cell phone because it makes me feel cool.

Ha. I thought about doing that, but opted to using am/pm format because it was easier in the end.




MM/DD vs DD/MM is annoying, I just try to guess which one people mean using logic...

That's never a problem when interacting people on a daily basis here. It's only really a problem when reading the expiry dates on products when I'm not sure what format the place-of-origin used.

Or, you know, websites.

I remember how I was always annoyed when my Chinese teacher used MM/DD when writing up the homework. She came from Taiwan.

[David75]

In france, the rule is to use the comma for decimals, and spaces every thousand.

So it is:
1 000 000,10 in France when it's 1,000,000.10 in the U.S.A.

Some people use the dot in France, mainly because they have been influenced.

[RyougaZell]

Commas and dots here in Mexico

1,000.00

And while the 12HR format is the standard... I prefer the 24HR format better. I normally set it like that in whatever device that allows it.

I too have the same problem with date formats... never knowing if its DD/MM or MM/DD


EDIT: BTW... I love how this thread started by confusing Archie with an european.

[Xelbair]

24h format is standard in Poland and the most logical dd/mm/yy date.

[Animeniax]

I like 24h clock because AM/PM is hard to decipher on a watch in low light. I think this is the same reason the military uses 24h clock.

[shinta|hikari]

Commas and dots for the Philippines, just like the US.

Damn our lack of originality.

[Animeniax]

Commas and dots for the Philippines, just like the US.

Damn our lack of originality.

Your people respect their forebears. Nothing wrong with that.

[Buffalobiian]

I like 24h clock because AM/PM is hard to decipher on a watch in low light. I think this is the same reason the military uses 24h clock.

I always thought the military used 24hr time just because it's less likely to be misinterpreted, whether in writing or speech. Interestingly, watches display 24hr time with the ":", which strictly speaking doesn't conform with 24hr-time format.

I can't ever recall being in a situation where I had a watch yet had no idea whether it should be AM or PM. Guess I don't get stuck in caves often enough.

[KrayZ33]

over here it's:

123 456km but(!) 4321km

and

123 456,12 €
or
123.456,12 €


some ugly shit: english people tend to write the number "one" somewhat like |
AND WHERE IS THE - in the 7? WHERE? bah

a seven should look like this: 7
the same thing goes for the capital letter Z, Z but its not that easy to misread

[Buffalobiian]

We do that too ("ones" being a straight line, sevens not having the strike-through)

[Xelbair]

one being a straight line? ouch, that is kinda annoying to read and can be misunderstood easily.
seven having the '-' in it is kinda only useful if you write one as '1' not '|' - if someone has bad handwriting(ie me) it can me mistaken for 1.
i use dash in Z and z only in math - because of my crappy handwriting i sometimes can mistook it for 2.

[Animeniax]

Programming languages also don't use commas for digit grouping....

Programming languages are smarter than people and don't need commas. Humans can barely walk down the street while chewing gum.

[Sapphire]

To be fair, I don't think a computer can do that either.

[Animeniax]

To be fair, I don't think a computer can do that either.

Depends... do giant battle suits count as computers or human extensions? If the newtype pilot chews gum while flying the mobile suit down the street, I think that counts.