The BIPM recommendation is that we use either the period or the comma for the decimal marker and use a space for the thousand separator. This is published in the US by the NIST. And elsewhere by each countries standards bureau. 57 countries have adopted this standard, but few seem to use it. www.bipm.org/en/about-us/member-states/
If my neighbour had done followed the recommendation, there would have been no misunderstanding, not being great at French he wrote down what he wanted, 3,500 mm of steel. The french guy took this as 3,5 mm. I’ve used the comma for the decimal marker since the mid 80’s when it became a standard. Mike > On 02 Aug 2016, at 17:17, Brian White <[email protected]> wrote: > > I'm all about metric, but hate the comma as a decimal sign. :) > >> On Aug 2, 2016, at 07:35, Michael Payne <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Interesting conversation with a neighbour over here in France this >> afternoon. He’d go down to the local metal dealer with his order for 3500 mm >> of steel. But the guy would say "no cannot do that" and he couldn’t >> understand why. I asked how are you writing the 3500? Put it down on paper >> for me. >> >> 3,500. I said well you realise the French use the comma as the decimal so he >> thinks you want three point five millimetres of steel, not three thousand >> five hundred millimetres. He’d not noticed that the road signs, everything >> you see has a comma for the decimal maker, and was not aware it was >> different. >> >> Mike Payne >> _______________________________________________ >> USMA mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma > _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected] https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
