"Indeed, Martin - you concur with my point. The dollar (or any currency) has no prototype defining a fixed constant value. Most currencies either float or are alinged to one that floats."
..Except in the way you count it or measure quantities of money. Sure, the VALUE of decimal money constantly goes up or down (mostly down) in regards to inflation and deflation...that is in large part due to the insane way our money is created. But the QUANTITY of decimal currency and the QUANTITY of centimetre, metre and kilometre measurements are both judged on measurements of a base 10 constant. ----- Original Message ----- From: Stephen Humphreys To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 11:51 AM Subject: [USMA:47111] RE: Decimal currency & Metrication Indeed, Martin - you concur with my point. The dollar (or any currency) has no prototype defining a fixed constant value. Most currencies either float or are alinged to one that floats. P.S. The petrol question you mention is usually done (in the UK I hasten to add) as mpg, so if my car averaged 50 miles per gallon and a gallon of fuel cost £5 then I will know that my economy is 50 miles per £5 (or ten miles per pound). It's just about what people are used to (although life is made slightly more complicated by having mpg, mph and miles only to have petrol pumps dispense in litres - so I agree with you that the measure mix there is messy). In the far east they use km per litre, for instance - meaning there's at least three ways of calculating economy around the world. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: vliets...@btinternet.com To: barkatf...@hotmail.com; usma@colostate.edu Subject: RE: [USMA:47103] RE: Decimal currency & Metrication Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:27:43 +0100 Steve, You are referring no doubt to the international prototype kilogram which is housed on international territory close to Paris (just as the UN building is international territory close to New York). Also, the international kilogram has kept its value to better than one part per million whereas the dollar … well what can I say? As regards dividing you pound by other units – you could express your fuel consumption in litres per 100 kilometres and knowing what the price of petrol is per litre, you can easily calculate the cost of the petrol to travel 100 km (or if you prefer, price per kilometre). You can then add on the price of tyres in pence per kilometre and so on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf Of Stephen Humphreys Sent: 12 April 2010 17:23 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:47103] RE: Decimal currency & Metrication 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 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Get a new e-mail account with Hotmail - Free. Sign-up now. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get a free e-mail account with Hotmail. Sign-up now. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get a free e-mail account with Hotmail. Sign-up now.
