Half Dollar Equals $.50 Or .50 Cents

50¢ or $.50

.50 cents equals........

I would suggest a third option for your poll (and the one I would pick):
communication is about understanding. If both sides understand the meaning, it's OK to communicate the best way you know how without having to endure lectures in propriety.

Propriety aside, if .50 is used to represent half a dollar, what, pray tell, would be the decimal representation for half a cent? And if we don't follow the rules, just what does your work contract mean if the publisher offers to pay you .50 cents for every newspaper you deliver?

Just an observation.

Next time you go to the post office check your receipt .

american flag postage stamp $0.41

Metalman

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So if I teach my kid that a table is a chair, and a chair is a table since we'll understand each other all is good?

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If you did that, then actually, yes, all would be good within your own language milieu. When I was in the doctoral program in Communication at Wayne State a couple of years ago, I was required to help teach people some of the basic ideas of language. Communication is a give and take. If you know what someone means, you can absorb what they are saying and process it in such as way as to have it make sense to you. You could teach your kids that birds were cats and dogs were trees. If you were their only 'teacher' of language (they don't require 'teachers'), then maybe there would be a problem. People and families have lots of different words for things.

For example, in my family we don't have such a thing as 'cornstarch.' When the kids were younger we used cornstarch for diaper rashes, so the kids called it "Ahhh," because that's how it made them feel. Now we all call cornstarch "ahhh" in our language milieu, and we know exactly what we are talking about.

If this forum is supposed to be like a family, then it should be OK to have lots of different words for things, and the give and take that exists naturally in language will continue. If you're going to start policing the site to eliminate all of the things that don't pass your and toomtoom's ideas of what should be known by all "as per elementary math," let me know.

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If you're going to start policing the site to eliminate all of the things that don't pass your and toomtoom's ideas of what should be known by all "as per elementary math," let me know.

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Ummmmm wasn't planning on it. But if toomtoom's post gets a few people to think about it a little and do it correctly in the future, then I'm all for it.

I guess I don't agree 100% with you're analysis. Just because people understand doesn't make it correct. Is it a catastrophe? Of course not. Will I be "policing the site"? Of course not. Would I like it if everywon hear had purrfect speling, gramer, and mathmattics? You betcha. I don't see it happen' though, and I still love everyone the same, even you.

50¢

Well, glad this has been mostly productive. It's easy to simply write monetary values correctly, so why fight against it? This site has lots to do with money and accordingly, a standard really ought to be in place, and that standard was taught to us a long time ago for each of us. There's no excuse.

After dealing with the problems of incorrect prices for thirty years, I decided to make it an issue with Walmart and perhaps they'll catch on. They help dumb down America with their incorrect signs in the produce section of their stores. You'd be surprised perhaps of the many workers at the store who couldn't understand decimal representations, including the co-manager who kicked me out of the store upon her getting agitated from my exposing of her lack of knowledge. It wasn't my point to do that, but to simply follow their policy in getting a mismarked item for free. Unfortunately, an obtuse manager who shouldn't have been in the position without having a good grasp on the subject got in the way of what could have been a quick exchange. It didn't help the matter to hear one illogical statement after another, including her telling me that if they placed a dollar sign in front of ".98" it'd mean ninety eight dollars. The business of Walmart has lots to do with money, and likewise you'd think they would confrom to the standards of elementary math as well.

Let's take this as something very constructive and after the simple acceptance, we can move on and prevent head scratching, thinking "Hmm, I think they meant that number as being 100 times greater".