The Decimal Point debate

[Split from 'Best Tank Destroyer']

My Emphasis.

A single round weighing in at 63 tons?!?

It's probably just a typo or error in translation, but it's generally accepted in English at any rate that writing 47,450 means forty seven thousand four hundred and fifty, I think this should read 47.450, or just under forty and a half.

 

Acctualy it is not a typo.
Example:
10,500kg ten point five kg
10.500 kg 10 tones and 5 hundered kilos.

 

Other way around, in English at any rate..

10.500 = 10 point 5, not ten thousand five hundred. It's a decimal point, not a decimal comma.

A "," is used to separate numbers into more easily readable chunks, so 1,000,000 would be 1 million, not one point zero zero zero point zero zero zero.

From:

http://www.wbs.ac.uk/about/identity/?gu ... ng-numbers

 

ISO 31-0 clearly specifies that the correct decimal delimiter is the comma (,). The correct thousands delimiter is a single space. This is true for all countries. ISO 31-0 acknowledge that a period is frequently used as a decimal delimiter for English-speaking countries, but does not approve of it.

The only objectively correct interpretation of 47,45 kg is therefore 47 and 45 hundreds of a kilogram, or 47 450 grams.

 

Tough sh1t!
Periods are used only because most keyboards (that I am familiar with) don't have a decimal point.

Bullsh1t!
47,500 is Forty seven thousand five hundred in English.
47,45 is open to misinterpretation in English.

The trouble with you Europeans, is that you are just not British!
And the trouble with us Brits, is that we always think we are right!

 

What he said...

 

Nonsense. It doesn't matter, since the correct decimal delimiter is a comma.

Nope.

Nope.

 

Remind me.

Which of us is English & which is not?

 

Apparently the one who doesn't know the international standard for presentation of numbers...

 

Am I bovvered?
Do I look bovvered?

 

Apparently not. Nevertheless, you're still wrong







(By the way, your attempt to use English slang does not scare me, ol' chap).

 

Remind me again, what is the official language of this forum?


The big confusion I think came from the fact that it was presented as 47,500 which certainly implies that it is 47 thousand and 5 hundred. Had it simply been 47,5 most of us arrogant English-speakers would have simply thought "Oh, that's foreign for 47.5"

 

I think that I am right concerning the possibilty of confusion in English speaking countries.

"Am I bovvered" is a catch-phrase of a popular British comedienne, named Catherine Tate.

 

Agreed.

 

English, of course - and, in English, the correct decimal delimiter is the comma

Not objectively

I know...

 

Um, as an English person... nope! After all, if the , was the official English sign, wouldn't that be what they taught us in school? Surely?

And if you look at the nations which have English as their official language...
(although there are quite a lot, so I can't speak for all of them! )

 

O.K.

In a genuine thirst for knowledge. (this thread needs to be split, I think). Why is the 'period' that floats mid-line called a 'decimal point', if, as I think Chris is saying, we should all be using commas anyway?

 

English, of course - and, in English, the correct decimal delimiter is the comma

Unfortunately this is a culture clash of the highest order.
While the comma is used by many nations and is the international standard for presentation of numbers, it isn't used within English speaking nations.

 

Traditionally, in English, an interpunct was used rather than a period, which would be the most likely reason.

 

Maybe not by the people, but that still doesn't make it corrrect to use a period. Furthermore, in international work in English where it is important that the numbers are not misunderstood (such as in construction works), a comma is used as the decimal delimiter.