>----- Original Message ----- >From: "kilopascal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Saturday, 2001 June 30, 08:59 >Subject: [USMA:14110] Re: Decimal point or decimal comma? > > > 2001-06-30 > > But, isn't (wasn't) the British point not on the line as the American point >is now, but at the vertical centre of the number? Something like: 3.14159? >I think the hand-held calculator (not the PC) are all made with points, not >commas. Even in countries that use commas. This coupled with the wide use of >English world-wide might through a process of evolution cause the comma to >be displaced by the point. I think it was the typewriter that did in the half-high point as the decimal marker. However, the (British) National Physical Laboratory version of the metric bible has the decimal marker as the dot on the line. The British and American metric standards retain the halt-high dot as the sign of multiplication, as in the symbol for newton metre: N.m Joseph B. Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 Tel. 416 486-6071
