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In the Middle Ages , that is, before Printing , a bar over the Units Digit was used. However, its regular usage and classification is attributed to Muḥammad Ibn Mūsā Al-Ḵwārizmī , a Persian scientist. Later, a separator (a short, roughly vertical, ink-stroke) between the units and tenths position became the norm. When type-set, it was convenient to use the existing marks called a comma or a period, which is variously called a stop or a dot, or else a point for this purpose. In France the dot was already in use in printing to make Roman Numerals more readable, so the comma was chosen. Many other countries also chose the comma to mark the decimal units position. It has been made standard by the ISO for international blueprints. , was preferred for the decimal separator in those technologies which could accommodate it. This had the advantage of reducing confusion with the countries that used the period to separate groups of digits, but as the middle dot was already in common use in world mathematics to indicate multiplication (for example, in the Dot Product ), the SI rejected this use of this symbol for this purpose. However, the use of the period as decimal point was not banned. British aviation magazines thus switched to the US form in the late twentieth century. When South Africa adopted the Metric System , it adopted the , as the decimal marker. For further details, see Comma Countries below. The separator in non-decimal Numeral System s may be referred to as a Radix Point . Examples of use:
In countries with a decimal comma, the decimal point is also common, as the "international" notation, and under the influence of e.g. electronic calculators using the decimal point. Computer programs can usually be adapted to use the local separator, but even on the same computer it is not uncommon that some programs use a comma, and some a point. Note that notations like "12,345", "12.345", "12,345.678", and "12.345,678" are ambiguous by a factor 1000 if the notational system is not known. DOT COUNTRIES Countries where a dot is used to mark the radix point include: : Australia , Botswana , Canada (English-speaking), China , Costa Rica , Dominican Republic , El Salvador , Guatemala , Honduras , Hong Kong of the People's Republic Of China , India , Ireland , Israel , Japan , Korea (both North and South), Malaysia , Mexico , Nicaragua , Nigeria , New Zealand , Pakistan , Panama , Philippines , Saudi Arabia , Singapore , Taiwan , Thailand , United Kingdom , United States (including Insular Area of Puerto Rico ), COMMA COUNTRIES Countries where a comma is used to mark the radix point include: : Albania , Andorra , Argentina , Austria , Azerbaijan , Belarus , Belgium , Bolivia , Brazil , Bulgaria , Canada (French-speaking), Croatia , Cuba , Chile , Colombia , Cyprus , Czech Republic , Denmark , Ecuador , Estonia , Faroes , Finland , France , Germany , Greece , Greenland , Hungary , Indonesia , Iceland , Italy , Latvia , Lithuania , Luxembourg (uses both separators officially), Macedonia , Moldova , Netherlands , Norway , Paraguay , Peru , Poland , Portugal , Romania , Russia , Serbia , Slovakia , Slovenia , Spain , South Africa , Sweden , Switzerland , Turkey , Ukraine , Uruguay , Venezuela , Zimbabwe SEE ALSO |
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