• sirxdaemon@lemmy.caEnglish
    101·
    11 months ago

    Here in Canada we got rid of our pennies years ago. For good reason.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
      42·
      11 months ago

      There’s loads of currency denominations we could get rid of. We could probably just do away with the whole idea of fractions of a currency unit and just make everything 1 pound / euro / dollar

      In the past a penny used to get you quite a lot, you might be able to have a meal out for a penny but now it’s literally worthless you need at least 50 of them to buy anything reasonable. No one bothers.

      The UK used to have half pennies. But then the UK also used to have 144 pennies in 1 pound.

      • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        7·
        11 months ago

        The UK used to have half pennies. But then the UK also used to have 144 pennies in 1 pound.

        I gather this is imperial system related.

        • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
          21·
          11 months ago

          12 is arguably a better arithmetic base than 10 since it divides nicely by 2, 3, 4 and 6 instead of just 2 and 5.

          • lad
            2·
            11 months ago

            I wish some countries would go this way and use 12-based as a default, while others would use 8-based because it’s closer to computers, and others will continue using 10-based.

            And then no-one will denote the system used because it’s the default, how’s that you don’t understand. Oh what a beautiful world we’d be living in 🥰

            • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
              11·
              11 months ago

              The point is that there are benefits to several different arithmetic bases for different purposes and forming some kind of dogma around any of them is weird.

              • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                2·
                11 months ago

                Well, there isn’t a perfect one… better just agree on using one, whichever that might be.

                • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
                  2·
                  11 months ago

                  Agree, so we will all just use hexadecimal since it is a convenient way to represent both fixed point and floating point arithmetic.

              • lad
                11·
                11 months ago

                There is no dogma, when doing maths you’re free to use anything even as esoteric as Fibonacci base. The problem is when this becomes widespread but not everywhere.

                If you’re for using it “for different purposes” I can’t even understand the point of your original comment, why preach?

                • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
                  11·
                  11 months ago

                  I am definitely not the one being preachy about a particular base. I am the one advocating flexibility over dogma.

                  All I did was point out that 12 is easier to divide cleanly than ten, and this very simple fact has pissed many people off for some reason.

            • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
              3·
              11 months ago

              Right, having more whole, proper fractions to work with can also be simpler (and more precise) than truncating decimals and dealing with the implications of significant figures. I just don’t understand why people are so hostile to this as a basic idea. Base 12 has benefits, just like base ten does.