Re: %18 or 18% : incorrect placement of the percentage sign ?

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

Arthur Reutenauer wrote:
>> [bara erom] 12.472.477 [bara emos]
>>
>> [bara erom] 774.274.21 [bara emos]
>>
>> for long numbers a pretty fast reversing mind is needed
> 
>   I think you're mistaken about the flexibility of human mind.  Eight
> digits may look like a lot, but that's really not a long string compared
> to an average line width, and it does not take a lot of effort for the
> reader to look ahead for the start of the number.  And eight digits is
> probably the longest it gets anyway (OK, maybe 12, but a 15-digit number
> would be difficult to read for anyone in any language).

real interesting book ...

http://www.mathematicalbrain.com/preface.html

(thinks like reading and seein gumbers, thinking in numbers, differences 
imposed by culture and language)


>   Actually you should look at it as a cultural difference, even if it
> interferes with scientific notation (and if you think about it, the
> percent sign is a scientific one, even if a rather simple and widely
> used one).  And I'm sure you know how natural each person can find his
> own culture, while others would be puzzled by aspects of it.  Hey,
> you're Dutch; doesn't that number read something like "twelve millions
> four hundred two and seventy thousands four hundred seven and seventy"
> in Dutch?  (What else do German, Dutch, Arabic and Slovenian have in
> common?)  And yet I'm sure you would read it out loud without hesitation
> (OK, you might say that you're only reversing two digits at a time, but
> I could reply that the way I see it, they are interspersed more or less
> arbitrarily).

there's a difference between 2, two, second etc and languages cq. 
cultures where kids learn / encounter ons of them first

(unfortunately i forget most of whay i read so i cannot summarize it)

Hans

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