Richard Sharpe wrote:
|> Learn something new everyday... was aware that much of the world uses a period to break up large numbers but did not realize that a comma was used to provide the break to decimals. Interesting. I guess the name decimal point must strictly be an American thing.
Not even all countries group their numbers by three digits, in India for instance, they use: xx xx xx xxx yyy. Here, *x* represents the integral digits and *y* the fractional digits. I can't remember what they use to split the groups though, could be either periods, comma's or spaces, nor can I remember if they use a decimal point or a decimal comma (or, for that matter if / how the fractional digits are grouped).
Funny thing, this is not something which they could really change, because it's not just how they write numbers, it's also how they name them. Where as our names for numbers are based on three-digits-at-a-time (thousands, millions, etc.) they use names (which, of course, I also can't remember ;) ) based on the same subdivision (thousands, hundred thousands, ten millions, etc.).
Moros wrote:
|> Well, we could also start with using the decimal time system
That's already been done / attempted: [Swatch Internet Time](
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatch_Internet_Time)
Ace Windu wrote:
|> Yeah we use the Imperial pint, or as I like to call it, a Real pint.
A while ago I was trying to talk to an English guy about the differences between British English and American English. The moment I dare utter "British English" he interrupts me and, to put it politely :p, objects to that phrase. So, instead we had a talk about the differences between Real English and American English. ;)
[WM] x wrote:
|> i like the turn this thread has taken.
Yeah, we kinda hijacked this thread didn't we? :D