Who first used the comma and period to represent multiples of thousands and decimals and how did they do it?
I noticed that in the U.S., we use commas for thousands and periods for decimals and in Europe, it’s the inverse.
BCE, Aristophanes of Byzantium invented a system of single dots (distinctiones) that separated verses (colometry) and indicated the amount of breath needed to complete each fragment of text when reading aloud (not to comply with rules of grammar, which were not applied to punctuation marks until thousands of years later). The different lengths were signified by a dot at the bottom, middle, or top of the line. For a short passage (a komma), a media distinctio dot was placed mid-level ( · ). This is the origin of the concept of a comma, though the name came to be used for the mark itself instead of the clause it separated.
The mark used today is descended from a diagonal slash, or virgula suspensiva ( / ), used from the 13th to 17th centuries to represent a pause, notably by Aldus Manutius. In the 16th century, the virgule dropped to the bottom of the line and curved, turning into the shape used today.
ALSO SEE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma_(punctuation)#History
http://www.math.byu.edu/~jvogler/history_numbers.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_numbers_in_English
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September 9th, 2009 at 6:46 am
BCE, Aristophanes of Byzantium invented a system of single dots (distinctiones) that separated verses (colometry) and indicated the amount of breath needed to complete each fragment of text when reading aloud (not to comply with rules of grammar, which were not applied to punctuation marks until thousands of years later). The different lengths were signified by a dot at the bottom, middle, or top of the line. For a short passage (a komma), a media distinctio dot was placed mid-level ( · ). This is the origin of the concept of a comma, though the name came to be used for the mark itself instead of the clause it separated.
The mark used today is descended from a diagonal slash, or virgula suspensiva ( / ), used from the 13th to 17th centuries to represent a pause, notably by Aldus Manutius. In the 16th century, the virgule dropped to the bottom of the line and curved, turning into the shape used today.
ALSO SEE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma_(punctuation)#History
http://www.math.byu.edu/~jvogler/history_numbers.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_numbers_in_English
~
References :
September 9th, 2009 at 7:29 am
I believe the European method is to leave a space for thousands: 1 000 000; and the Europeans use the decimal point exactly as in the U.S.: 1 000.00324.
The U.S. method is: 1,000,000.00324
References :
September 9th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Good question, I cannot answer it but I will correct Mac, in Europe only the UK use the comma for thousands and period for decimals :
1,000,000.0032
All the other countries do it the other way around, using the coma for decimal :
1.000.000,032
or :
1 000 000,032
You cannot believe what a pain it is when you have to work with both systems all day long and have to remember which is which.
References :