@Robert7301201@slrpnk.net
member since 13 Jun 2023 18:37
comments
- on Love is love in c/lemmybewholesome@lemmy.world · 6 Sep 2026
-
on Love is love in c/lemmybewholesome@lemmy.world · 6 Sep 2026
What’s the argument for having it before the number?
I actually kind of like it written that way because it follows the standard for other units. It should be quantity and then unit. 50 m. 0°C. 50%. 2:00 PM.
You yourself recognize that that’s the way we say it, and even write it out long form. 50 dollars.
Sure, historically, $50 has been the correct way to write it, but language changes. Why not make a change that makes English more consistent?
I will cocede PM is not a unit, but % is at least an honoray unit of measurement based on how it’s used [1].
Time is weird. A duration has a unit associated with it, seconds, minutes, hours, but an absolute time doesn’t. That is unless we’re using an epoch. I could say today started at 1788652800 seconds if we’re using unix epoch.
I guess that’s because time is a coordinate system. 2 PM is designating a specific point in that coordinate system. There’s no origin (unless epoch specified), so we can’t have an absolute measurement, so we don’t have units associated with it. PM just feels similar to a unit because it is part of a coordinate system.