Why do people put commas in numbers?

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John2010

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#638267 9-Jun-2012 15:27

I see in Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design (8th ed. which I think is the current ed. - a common US university text, may be here too?) they generally use spaces for the thousands and thousandths separator but sometimes no separator at all - I think they may go to no separator when use of a space which is intended to not introduce confusion is likely to introduce confusion

John2010

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#638279 9-Jun-2012 16:36

Err, for sake of good order will clarify it was actually the 9th edition of Shigley's I looked at

Lurch

1061 posts

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#638381 9-Jun-2012 23:35

Why do I use comma's, well it was taught to me that way all through school. Primary school to College :-)

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#638383 9-Jun-2012 23:49

Lurch: Why do I use comma's, well it was taught to me that way all through school. Primary school to College :-)

you mean commas

gzt

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#638385 10-Jun-2012 00:05

American school textbooks use commas as thousands separators and imho this is the norm in the US.

Some countries use commas as decimal place holders.

My guess is the space method is an international standards compromise designed to provide a replacement separator and eliminate the confusion around comma decimal point or thousands separator.

ANglEAUT

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#638449 10-Jun-2012 12:13

Microsoft & their Regional / Language settings specify a comma as the thousands separator and a period as the decimal separator.

I personally grew up using a space as the thousands separator and think it is much cleaner as there is only one marker at that height in the line signifying the decimal separator.

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Behodar

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#638462 10-Jun-2012 12:55

IcI: Microsoft & their Regional / Language settings specify a comma as the thousands separator and a period as the decimal separator.

And that's one of the first things I change after I install Windows :P

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timmmay

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#638698 11-Jun-2012 08:15

Excel lets you put in commas to make large numbers easier to read, that's why I do it.

BlueShift

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#638715 11-Jun-2012 08:41

Lurch: Why do I use comma's, well it was taught to me that way all through school. Primary school to College :-)

Why do I u'se apo'strophe's? Co's there's an 's there, and you mu'st alway's have an apo'strophe before an 's.

Lurch

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#638763 11-Jun-2012 10:09

joker97:
Lurch: Why do I use comma's, well it was taught to me that way all through school. Primary school to College :-)

you mean commas

I shouldn't reply to posts at certain times of the day, especially when one has a 5 year old. Was a long day that day :-)

oxnsox

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#638801 11-Jun-2012 10:58

IcI: Microsoft & their Regional / Language settings specify a comma as the thousands separator and a period as the decimal separator. (edit)...

And there is the real answer... Because Microsoft says, it's the way things are.

Forget what whichever-way you learned, be these right or not-quite-so, we're living a comm(a)ercial world, one driven by comm(a)erce and software mega-moguls. School....humbug.. Operating systems (enter your preferred flavour here) rule. So be evolutionary and adapt!!

stevenz

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#638867 11-Jun-2012 12:52

At a glance, it's easier to tell how many zeroes are in

100000000000

versus

100,000,000,000

@KnightNZ

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