this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (21 children)

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 7 points 11 months ago (18 children)

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 1 points 11 months ago (12 children)

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.

[–] MrNobody 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If only we had a way to have numbers smaller than 1.

[–] Socsa 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 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.

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