One of my pet peeves

[Mark]

People who don't have a clue how to properly state a number.

This has been a peeve of mine for a long time so I've finally decided to rant about it.

Tonight I'm driving home and there's a story about J&J laying off 4% of their work force.  In the story it was stated that this would save J&J "a billion and a half dollars a year."  That is one billion dollars plus one half of a dollar or $1,000,000,000.50.  I am sure what they meant to say was "one and a half billion dollars."  That's only a difference of $499,999,999.50!  I hear this all the time.  It's not right and it bugs the hell out of me.

Mark

[Dr. Steed]

I've always been in favor of using decimal notation. It's similar in logic to scientific notation (X * 10^y) and easier to pronounce. Call it "one point five billion" and there's no ambiguity: 1.5 * 1,000,000,000 = 1,500,000,000.

[Mark]

Works for me.  But I have no doubt that some nit-wit out there would start saying "one billion point five" and the whole thing would start over 

[Dr. Steed]

Works for me.  But I have no doubt that some nit-wit out there would start saying "one billion point five" and the whole thing would start over 

That would be why Simon invented the LART.