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Why do we separate digits by 10^3?

I know this seems like a stupid question, but why do we separate digits with commas every 3 digits? Is there some sort of reason for this? is it easier to count over 3 digits, rather than 5 or 10? I realize it's partly because of our naming system (thousand, million, billion, trillion), but 3 seems like a very arbitrary number to me.

100 Quintillion

1 * 10^20

100,000,000,000,000,000,000

1,00000,00000,00000,00000

1 Quadripenten (new number naming system?)

1,0000000000,0000000000

1 Billidecen

I realize you would need new number systems, so I guess

10 = ten

100 = duen

1000 = trien

10000 = quadren

100000 = penten

------------------------

1000000 = sexten

10000000 = septen

100000000 = octen

1000000000 = nonen

10000000000 = decen

I figure if our number system is base ten, why not separate our digits in groups of 10? or maybe 5? something that's easier to simplify exponents with, rather than by 3 (doesn't divide well with 10).

I suppose the choice of 3 digits might be due to human memory; maybe someone decided that groups of 3 digits were the easiest to remember.

Another reason might be that it's faster to say

Example:

1,243,463

one million two hundred fourty three thousand four hundred sixty three

12,43463

twelve millipenten four quadren three trien four duen sixty three

Although the base-10^5 uses less characters, I suppose it should depend more on the amount of syllables. Both of them end up having 17 syllables as well.

Etymology:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=thousand

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thousand

I'm just curious as to what everyone's opinions on this are. I doubt any change would ever happen, just like converting from the US system of weights and measures to the metric system, or from pi to tau.

Update:

I realize anywhere from 1 to 10 zeroes in a row might be hard to count, but it's pretty hard to mess up when there's only 1 to 5

1000 = 1,000

10000 = 10,000

1,00000 = 100,000

10,00000 = 1,000,000

100,00000 = 10,000,000

etc.

It's also a lot easier to see the difference when you have numbers other than just zero.

Update 2:

I'm not asking why we use commas, I'm asking why we specifically group 3 at a time (or apparently 2 in asian countries?). If it's because of our naming system for numbers, then why did we develop our naming system based on 10^3?

5 Answers

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  • sparky
    Lv 4
    10 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    in the west (most of Europe and America's) one reason is for ease of reading.

    another is the most common western language of math groups numbers in three digit sequences:

    that is -> ones, tens, hundreds

    with each new group of place values having a new additional name

    thousands, millions, billions, etc.

    so: ones, tens, hundreds, then one thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, then on millions, ten millions, hundred millions, etc.

    There is no loss of value if the comma's are not used. It really is just for ease of reading.

  • 5 years ago

    I do not agree with the answerer who feel that the credit of all the inventions should go to the Muslims because they seem to have forgotten the history. Before the advent of present day Islam or before Allah (swt) sent the Holy Quran the Arabs were a blot on the name of Humanity. The same people after advent of the present day Islam and taking cue from the Holy Quran started searching for the truth and could make all the above and many more inventions. So I think credit going to Islam is justified. World is controlled by the media now and the media is controlled by the Zionists. This is the reason the world has ignored the Islamic contribution to Science and Literature.

  • 10 years ago

    yeah because it is easier to be recognize because the name of the number are by pairs of zeros exatly by three

    for example 1 000. if I write 1000000000000 at first sight you cant tell me which number it is

    BUT if I write it like this 1 000 000 000 000 you can easily say it is 1 trillion. you see three pairs make the -llion prefix million,billion.trillion and etc. so you can write close them if you want 1000000000000000 but at leat put comm or point like this 1,000,000,000,000,000

    so i gave you two reasons pair of 3 zeroes make -llion and it is easier to be recognized.

  • 10 years ago

    I think you're asking about culture-specific formatting.

    1000000>1,000,000 IN ENGLISH &American style more in western cultures..

    in Asia

    1000000>10,00,000

    1000000000>1,00,00,00,000

    because counting numbers are as in west one, ten, thousand ,million and on

    but in Asia n India

    one ,thousand,lakh(.1M),CRORE(.1b)

    Source(s): B
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  • 10 years ago

    I do not read or write commas in them, so what ?

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