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Comment by andrewstuart2 | Hacker News Reader

Well, we've certainly drilled more than 12 meters. :-P (Note the decimal point: 12.262km; I just converted to km to keep it consistent with the other measurements I cited)

Could be confusing if you're used to the inverse comma/period from what we use in the US (comma=thousands, period=decimal).

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It would be far less confusing if you only reported the depth to the hundredths place, as it them both disambiguates the period/comma (in the case where it's reversed by locale), and makes it immediately recognizable.

It is very confusing even though I know this to be the case. It is much harder to parse when the numbers are similar. I do not care which one, just wish everyone would use the same notation. In this case for me it would have been clearer if it said 12262km vs 12262m which is what I would have written. But he :) Interesting comment anyway.

Would be far less confusing if you'd just written "~12km" and "~11km". The meters add little to the point you're trying to make.

Well, that's probably true, but it was late and I thought the higher precision would help add to my point. Too late to fix it now, though. :-P

I remember in high school we were taught we should separate thousands using spaces instead of comma or period, since it avoids that whole cross-cultural confusion about which symbol does what.

It was indeed the thousand separator which confused me, thanks

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