xkcd

11922 readers

193 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

koraro@lemmy.world

185

xkcd #3102: Reading a Big Number (xkcd.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de to c/xkcd@lemmy.world

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

[desperately] Maybe this is from some country where they use commas as decimal points, and also as digit separators after the decimal, and also use random other characters for decoration???

https://explainxkcd.com/3102/

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Depending on handwriting or font, commas may be more visible than spaces.

[–] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Hard disagree. I work a lot with numbers, both hand-written and typed. I've yet to come across a situation where spaces are not sufficiently clear for readability. Using spaces for separation has never been an issue with letters, why would it be an issue with numbers?

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 weeks ago

the problem with spaces is that it leaves it ambigous whether it's one or multiple separate numbers, whereas a non-space separator (i think apostrophe is just obviously the best) makes it clear: 123'000'398