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Comment by giantg2 | Hacker News Reader

Because citizens aren't expected to need to know the scale. They are only expected to follow the guidance their governments issue.

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I like the response, seems very astute of an observation.

Interpreting this in the worse light possible… in other words, gate keeping.

I think a lot more people could understand and be mature in a lot more things if artificial and archaic barriers weren’t erected. I think not trusting the public is a recipe for an obscure elite ruling class. Sure, not a whole lot of people will get it but at least be open about it.

Then again, maybe there is a benefit to using that particular scale and I’ve been poisoned by my generational ills.

Not trying to be argumentative.

If I hazarded a guess it’s the second reason right?

There's no artificial barriers being errected here by deciding to say "8" instead of writing out 8 zeros.

Obvious answer: compare 10000000 vs 7. Which is easier to understand?

I was taught logarithmic scales in middle school. If every concept needs to be dumbed down to a pre-middle school level for maximum accessibility (to minimize gatekeeping), you're going to end up with a public who literally can't comprehend the things they're being told because they stopped learning before middle school.

The average comprehension is grade school level

I believe it's a 4th grade level, specifically. I think that's part of the basis for the show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader.

That's a reason to not use Latin; but when it comes to numbers and scales… I was surprised to discover that other people are themselves often surprised when they learn that a billion is a thousand times larger than a million.

Which is itself a relatively recent standardisation. Up to the '70's, a billion could beat thousand million or million million depending on where you were.

Which standardization? The world is still very much split between the long and short scale (and other systems)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

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