I have a single unit/item called a 20p coin. 5 of these and I will have £1.00.
If I have a 50p coin I have half of £1 (£1 being 100 pence).
I also have far too many 2p pieces. Fifty of them make up a pound (£1)
Rather nicer is this £20 note. You can do the math(s) relating to all the
other items above.
If our currency was made up of just 1p pieces, £1 coins, £100 notes etc then
you could just about start to apply metric principles to our currency and talk
about decipounds, megapence, kilopounds etc.
If I go to other countries I see similar attributes to their currency -
although there is no currency which is stored in an office in Paris or whatever
- although the dollar is the prototype of some currencies, you could say.
Having said that, none of the other currencies have prefixes such as kilo,
mega, etc either and none are based upon a scientific constant (in fact they
change in value every minute of every day).
Similarly I cannot divide or multiply my currency by another metric measure -
although I suppose you could say that salary = X£/s
"Decimal" is all that links our currency and metric measures.
<Exit stage right>
From: stevo.da...@btinternet.com
To: usma@colostate.edu
Subject: [USMA:47101] RE: Decimal currency & Metrication
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:36:47 +0100
Metric is base 10; decimal and decimal currency is base 10.
Both divide up and down by units of 10:
5p - 50p - £5
5cm - 50cm - 500cm (or 5 metres).
Both divide into decimal fractions of 10:
£1.45 - £14.50 - £145
1.45cm - 14.5cm - 145cm (or 1 metre, 45cm)
The only real difference is that you cannot divide decimal currency beyond the
number 1.
So, all in all, I would say decimal and metric are very similar indeed and work
on the same principles.
----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen Humphreys
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 10:46 PM
Subject: [USMA:47088] RE: Decimal currency & Metrication
You could also say that 'base-10' is the only thing that links metric and
decimal currency.
On other levels there is very little commonality - For example - you can have a
mixture of unit-types happening concurrently. In fact all countries are mixed
unit (imp or USC and metric) - just to varying degrees, eg Germany has very
little imperial - but still has it (BTU, inches) right up to the UK and then
the US. In the latter two countries you can see a large mix of units operating
concurrently.
You cannot have a decimal currency and a non-decimal currency running
concurrently. Maybe during a transition there are 'equivalences' but this
simply makes non-dec currency equivalent to a a dec one.
Some people say that money is a 'measure' of wealth. I think that's as far as
the use of the word goes.
Decimal and decimalization is a mathematical theory - ie 'decimal' is not a
measurement.
metric and metrication *is* a measurement topic.
> Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2010 21:24:48 +0100
> From: tom.w...@tomwade.eu
> Subject: [USMA:47087] Decimal currency & Metrication
> To: usma@colostate.edu
>
>
>
> > I doubt it. Currency is different. It's not metricating. The
> > equivalent in measures would be to make 10 inches = a foot etc (that's
> > decimalisation) .
>
> Decimal currency predated the metric system, which is why there
> are differences, but both decimal currency and metrication have a lot in
> common - the main property being both align conversion of units/subunits
> with the base numbering system. Since base 10 is universally used in
> number representation (leaving aside computer internals), both
> metrication and decimal currency achieve the same ease of conversion by
> using tens and multiples of tens. Metrication is simply the appliance
> of the principles of decimal currency to other forms of measure,
> extending the range of multiples to suit varying magnitudes.
>
> Of course, it is in the interest of anti-metric campaigners to try and
> paint metrication and decimalization as totally different concepts.
> This is because decimal currency is widely accepted in the two main
> metric hold-out countries. Pretty much every American is familiar with
> converting between dollars and cents, and sees the correlation between
> $1.24 and 124 cents without even thinking about it.
>
> A powerful argument in favor of metrication is that measuring your
> height in metric as 1.74 m (or 174 cm) is exactly the same as dealing
> with dollars and cents. For the far right jingoistic gun-toting
> nationalists, you can point out that the metric system is simply the
> application (and extension) of the American idea of applying decimal
> principles to other forms of measurements. Once the US introduced
> decimal currency (the first major currency to do so) it pretty much was
> followed everywhere else. We should not lose the opportunity to draw
> parallels between the two in the campaign for metrication in the US.
>
> For the UK, some people are old enough to remember the cumbersome twelve
> pennies to the shilling an twenty shillings to the pound (which lasted
> until 1971). It should be pointed out that if organizations like the
> BWMA had their way in the seventies, people would still be struggling
> with this nonsense. No doubt after metrication has been established for
> a few years, people will look back on miles & pints with the same
> curious bafflement at why people put up with it for so long.
>
> The parallels between metrication and decimal currencies are of major
> importance in the campaign for metrication. They are *not* completely
> different concepts, but two sides of the same coin (so to speak).
>
> Tom Wade
>
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