Euro's and Spain

This is confusing and nearly gave me a Heart attack.  Is it common practise to use the comma and decimal point completely the wrong way round when expressing figures in Euro's?

For example 38.967,50  Euros, I took this to be 38 point 967 thousand.  In Sterling it would be £38, 967.50

Is this a Spanish punctuation thing????

Kelvin

Actually it is we who are out of step.

All other countries in Europe (well, maybe not all because I haven't been to ALL of them, but definitely Germany, France, Austria, Portugal and Italy) use the comma and decimal point the other way round to us.  so 9,8 is 9.8 etcetera.

So our 1,500.87 is written in other countries as 1.500,87, or one thousand 5 hundred point 87. 

Sorry, Roberto, but this is a misconception on the part of foreigners and Brits alike.  There are actually 82 countries around the world who drive on the left including Japan, Australia, most Mediterranean and Caribbean Islands (including the US Virgin Islands) South Africa etc.  In India, they just drive up the middle.

At one time, everyone in the world drove on the left,  This was so that when you were driving your carriage or chariot, you wouldn't hit the pedestrians with your whip when you wanted to accelerate.  Before this, knights of old drove on the left so they could whip out their swords to fight the nasty black knight.

Napoleon changed all this by stamping his authority on the countries he conquered and made them drive on the right (he did it just because he could).  This is why those countries not conquered by Napoleon still drove on the left.  He didn't get as far as Sweden but they changed to make it easier to drive in and out of the country (judging by the price of booze in Sweden, many people did leave the country and it probably confused them when they came back).

The Americans drive on the right because Henry Ford (before the car, the cowboys drove on the left for the same reason the knights did, but with guns --- nothing changes) thought the average American driver wouldn't be able to change gears with his left hand so he put the gear stick on the right and the steering wheel on the left.

Ho, Hum!!! What this has to do with the Euro I don't know.  Must be going through my bored stage as I just got back from holiday (If you can call giving all your money to the Las Vegas casino owners to be a holiday, still, it was 88 round swimming pool so that compensated --- or should I say 32 (now there's a different topic altogether))!!!!!!

PS I know you said Europe but Cyprus and Malta will probably be entering soon so that double the amount of left hand drive nations.  And in Britain and Ireland, we don't make a habit of driving between countries so we don't have to swap sides (except when visiting our second holiday homes, of course).  And the Swedes also changed overnight ... Imagine that in Britain??? It would take 5 years just to change the traffic cones from one side to the other!!!!

 My comment was meant tongue in cheek (there's no smiley with his tongue in cheek, so I had to use one with it outside his cheek). I expected to get shot down for it, but not so swiftly or in such style! While you're in the mood Bob, I'd be interested to know how many countries share a land border with a country that drives on the other side. There must be a few?

Now, about those peculiar temperature measurements that Brits love so much....or is it just those who were born before it was decided to switch to a system of weights and measures (and for that matter, currency) that actually favours those who have only 10 digits on which to count, rather than 12 or 16?

Absolutely right Bobaol it is Europe and the Yanks that drive on the wrong side of the road. What is more I think we should start a campaign here to get Europe to fall into line with the rest of the world! Now who is my EMP?

Alan

Have you noticed how we, in Britain, use both scales?  We use the Fahrenheit scale when it is hot ( as in, boy it;s in the 90s today, rather than it;s in the 30s) and the Celsius (when did this change from Centigrade?) when its cold (as in, boy, it's freezing today, must be nearly zero, rather than, boy it's cold, must be nearly 32).

I do know how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit exactly:

take the Celsius reading and double it.  Minus 10%.  Add 32.

eg  14 Celsius,  doubled equals 28.  Minus 10% (2.8) = 25.2, add 32 equals 57.2 Fahrenheit.

The above works exactly no matter what the temperature.  I know how to do it approximately the other way round (fahrenheit to celsius) but not exactly.  Anyone know??

And regarding the duodecimal system for currency.  At least when we had pounds, shillings and pence, kids could do maths and add up and take away.  Since we went decimal (which did for our currency what the euro did for the europeans, caused inflation) kids no longer have to think so much about sums and are, nowadays, basically thick!!

As to our other measures, at least they make sense, unlike, for example the metre which is 1 millionth the distance round the centre of the earth going through Paris, or the gram (me) which is the weight of a piece of metal held at the Lyceum in Paris (under a vacuum glass) at 1 millibar of pressure providing the constant doesn't change etc etc etc

Ours are (were??)

1 mile  - the distance a horse can be ridden at the gallop without resting

1 Acre - the amount a horse can plough in one day

1 Yard - the distance from a mans nose to the end of his thumb

1 pound - the amount a man can hold in one hand

1 foot  - speaks for itself

1 inch - the length from the thumb knuckle to the end of his thumb.

Bloody Napoleon has a lot to answer for.

Fahrenheit to Celsius:

Subtract 32, then multiply by (5 divided by 9)

e.g. 57 F minus 32 = 25, x 5 = 125, divided by 9 = 13.888888888888888888888888888888 etc. Celsius

So you see, I'm not all that thick (although I confess, I did use a calculator for the above example!)

You may have guessed, I am too young to have been affected by the inflation cause by decimalisation (my pocket money was too little for it to make any difference to my real spending power), and although I was also a bit p*ssed off that my coffee went from 100 peseta to 166.386 pesetas (1 euro) overnight, my business also rounded up (and occasionally down where it was easier) so overall it didn't cause too much pain, and euros are so much easier to deal with. I also had many customers from other eurozone countries, and life was so much simpler with a single currency - which was the main point I think. Still, it was nice being a millionaire for a while....

But we're talking ancient history. Why do so many Spaniards still insist on talking property prices in pesetas? Drives me NUTS!

Anybody know if I can still change this, and how much I will I get for it?

Judging by the look of that note, you'd probably get more for it on Antiques Roadshow than you'd get in a bank.

After lots of research (how sad am I at this time of night) I managed to find countries where you have to switch.

If you drive through India (on the left) to Pakistan (on the left) into Afghanistan, you have to switch to the right (probably cos of all the American troops there).  If you really want to drive to Afghanistan, that is.

From Egypt (on the right) down through Sudan (on the right) to Uganda (on the left) to Zimbabwe (on the left) to Zaire (on the right) and into South Africa (on the left) you can switch a few times on your journey.

And you can go all the way across China (on the left) to Russia where you have to switch to the right.  Your'e OK then all acroos Europe until you get a ferry to Cyprus or Malta (south) or UK (west)when you have to go on the left.  And if you ship your car to the US, you can stay on the right unless you stop off in Bermuda (back to the left again).  Your'e alright crossing from Australia to New Zealand because you're on the left and, if you stop in the Falklands, you can stay on the left until you hit Argentina where you have to go right again.  All the mainland countries in South and North America keep to the right because they all changed a long time ago.  But don't stop off in Jamaica, US Virgin Islands or Barbados on the way cos you'll have to go left again.

Maybe I should invent a car with the steering wheel in the middle??