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> at a current price of €2.175 per 1 liter What? €2175 per liter of diesel? Am I missing something? /edit: nvm I misinterpreted decimal point as a thousands s

> at a current price of €2.175 per 1 liter What? €2175 per liter of diesel? Am I missing something? /edit: nvm I misinterpreted decimal point as a thousands seperator.

ginko 5y ago
I guess the . is supposed to be a decimal point.
julius_deane 5y ago
medo-bear 5y ago
in some places across EU decimal points are thousands separators and commas indicate decimals. i find this confusing too
- dustymcp 5y ago
  Living in a country that does this, it is very confusing.
  - jeroenhd 5y ago
    The comma is used as a decimal separator in almost all European countries, with only English-speaking countries, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland using the full stop. Luxembourg uses both, confusingly, but in Europe people using the full stop as a decimal separator are the odd one out. I find long versus short scale for numbers like billion vs milliard a lot more confusing. I also would have a hard time adjusting to the lakh/crore system used elsewhere in the world. The decimal separator, though? That's just applying reason. Fuel prices may be high right now but they definitely haven't increased a thousandfold.
- Guillaume86 5y ago
  Some places = everywhere except UK and Ireland basically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator#/media/File:DecimalSeparator.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator#/media/File:...
  - medo-bear 5y ago
    haha til
- vultour 5y ago
  It's pretty obvious a liter of diesel cannot cost 2175EUR, so I don't understand how one can make this mistake even if they use the reverse.
  - can16358p 5y ago
    Hence I asked whether I was missing something.
    - medo-bear 5y ago
      yeah be careful if you need to write some financial code :)
      - can16358p 4y ago
        Ironically I write solidity, good that we don't use decimal separators or thousands at all and just simply type numbers as big integers.
- weberer 5y ago
  Its not even consistent either. One local supermarket uses periods, the other uses commas. My banking app uses periods, but MobilePay uses commas.
vardump 5y ago
A very reasonable misunderstanding, because that's exactly how 2.175 would be interpret in Finland. As 2175. In Finland, comma is the decimal separator.
- Delk 5y ago
  Technically, I'm not sure most people in Finland would interpret 2.175 as 2175 because the dot isn't generally used as a thousands separator either. If you want a thousands separator, it's usually just a single space. "2.175" would be just a weird bunch of numbers as the dot isn't generally used as any kind of a number separator.
- julius_deane 5y ago
  How is it a "_very_ reasonable misunderstanding" when the difference is literally 1000 times?
heavenlyblue 5y ago
Out of all places, Hacker News misunderstanding the meaning on `.` in a number? :) Every single programming language uses a dot as a floating-point separator.
- julius_deane 5y ago
  Not only that, but 2k for a litter of gas is somehow a reasonable price to cause confusion over just assuming the dot is being used as a separator in place of comma.

> at a current price of €2.175 per 1 liter What? €2175 per liter of diesel? Am I missing something? /edit: nvm I misinterpreted decimal point as a thousands seperator.

ginko 5y ago

I guess the . is supposed to be a decimal point.

julius_deane 5y ago

medo-bear 5y ago

in some places across EU decimal points are thousands separators and commas indicate decimals. i find this confusing too

dustymcp 5y ago
Living in a country that does this, it is very confusing.
- jeroenhd 5y ago
  The comma is used as a decimal separator in almost all European countries, with only English-speaking countries, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland using the full stop. Luxembourg uses both, confusingly, but in Europe people using the full stop as a decimal separator are the odd one out. I find long versus short scale for numbers like billion vs milliard a lot more confusing. I also would have a hard time adjusting to the lakh/crore system used elsewhere in the world. The decimal separator, though? That's just applying reason. Fuel prices may be high right now but they definitely haven't increased a thousandfold.
Guillaume86 5y ago
Some places = everywhere except UK and Ireland basically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator#/media/File:DecimalSeparator.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator#/media/File:...
- medo-bear 5y ago
  haha til
vultour 5y ago
It's pretty obvious a liter of diesel cannot cost 2175EUR, so I don't understand how one can make this mistake even if they use the reverse.
- can16358p 5y ago
  Hence I asked whether I was missing something.
  - medo-bear 5y ago
    yeah be careful if you need to write some financial code :)
    - can16358p 4y ago
      Ironically I write solidity, good that we don't use decimal separators or thousands at all and just simply type numbers as big integers.
weberer 5y ago
Its not even consistent either. One local supermarket uses periods, the other uses commas. My banking app uses periods, but MobilePay uses commas.

vardump 5y ago

A very reasonable misunderstanding, because that's exactly how 2.175 would be interpret in Finland. As 2175. In Finland, comma is the decimal separator.

Delk 5y ago
Technically, I'm not sure most people in Finland would interpret 2.175 as 2175 because the dot isn't generally used as a thousands separator either. If you want a thousands separator, it's usually just a single space. "2.175" would be just a weird bunch of numbers as the dot isn't generally used as any kind of a number separator.
julius_deane 5y ago
How is it a "_very_ reasonable misunderstanding" when the difference is literally 1000 times?

heavenlyblue 5y ago

Out of all places, Hacker News misunderstanding the meaning on `.` in a number? :) Every single programming language uses a dot as a floating-point separator.

julius_deane 5y ago
Not only that, but 2k for a litter of gas is somehow a reasonable price to cause confusion over just assuming the dot is being used as a separator in place of comma.