• Kbobabob@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      But not nearly as interesting seeing the big number. Also, who is that supposed to be clear to? The raised numbers are so small I can’t even read them on my phone.

      • babybus@sh.itjust.works
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        6 days ago

        It’s your phone! You can change the font size or your lemmy client if it renders these numbers incorrectly.

      • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz
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        6 days ago

        Or just in the browser. Whatever app they are using is not following the same markdown as Lemmy, which supports only one level: 10^33^ = 1033.

    • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Not really. Most people aren’t familiar with scientific or engineering notation. Writing £1,000,000, one million pounds or £1Million is a lot clearer than writing £1×10^6.

      My cars odometer says 91,584, not 91.584×10^3

      • Tabula_stercore@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Your examples are with small enough numbers that indeed it can also be written out. Now if you please, write out 7.45•10^16

        • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          It’s not about the size of the number, it’s about presenting information in a way that the average reader can understand. The best way to do that is to present it in the way that they’re accustomed to and I don’t think I’ve ever seen scientific notation used to refer to a sum of money.

          It’s great that you and I understand scientific notation, but it’s worthlesss when you’re trying to get the average person to understand what you’re writing if they don’t know it themselves.

          To make myself clear, I’m not saying that scientific notation isn’t useful, I’m just saying that most people don’t understand it.

          For extra credit, 74,500,000,000,000,000 aka seventy four quintillion, five hundred quadrillion.