Comments on: .002 dollars does not equal .002 cents

By: Jonah

Jonah — Tue, 31 May 2011 23:22:44 +0000

I work for Papa Johns, and we recently came out with promos for our new chicken wing deal that advertises them being .50(cent sign) per wing, which is technically half a cent per wing, though we charge them .50$ per wing. I wont be surprised if we start getting complaints

By: Biofreak

Biofreak — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:53:35 +0000

Yup…. T. Nel is wrong….
its like .002 of 1000 2 and .002 of 10000=20 …so unit is important !

By: Clint

Clint — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:22:25 +0000

Yes, I’ve become a little discouraged by the amount of people that continue to argue this point even after it has been explained to them. I have some sympathy for the initial mistake, but failing to understand the difference, or refusing to accept it after an explanation, says something bad about the state of our mathematics education.

By: Nolan

Nolan — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:00:51 +0000

Sadly I saw this same error at my daughters school. The teacher actually argued with me that:

“Whenever you are talking about money you have to use the decimal point in front of the non dollar amount, even when using the ‘cent sign.’”

This is what they teach.

By: Andrew K

Andrew K — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:10:54 +0000

T-Nel you are an IDIOT

By: Joe D.

Joe D. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:41:09 +0000

T-Nel is indeed mistaken. Type .002 cents * 35896 into google and see what you get for an answer (71 cents, or .71 dollars). Then type .002 dollars * 35896 and see what you get (71 dollars). .002 is just the units or value. What you apply it against as the measure per unit (dollars vs cents) makes all the difference.

By: Clint

Clint — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:46:52 +0000

T-Nel, I have to disagree. Numbers in front of the decimal represents the whole unit of whatever unit that is indicated. You wouldn’t make the same mistake with 2.54 hours, 2.54 minutes, and 2.54 seconds. You can’t assume anything from a decimal point, you have to know which unit is being measured. .02 means 2 hundredths of some unit. A dollar sign or a cent sign indicates the unit. $.02 means 2 hundredths of a dollar as indicated by the dollar sign. .02¢ means 2 hundredths of a cent. I think you can understand this by simply figuring out how to write “half a cent”: .5¢ This cannot be both 50 cents and half a cent. It is .5 of the indicated unit, in this case, cents.

So, when you state that “2 thousandths of a dollars written in numbers is 0.002¢,” that is just not true. .002¢ means 2 thousandths of a cent.

In your math example, your math is correct, but the units are not. 4 x 2.5 seconds and 4 x 2.5 minutes both equal 10, but one is 10 seconds and the other is 10 minutes. The same is true in your example. One is 71.79 dollars, and the other is 71.79 cents.

50¢ = “fifty cents”
.50¢ = “half a cent”
$50 = “fifty dollars”
$.50 = “5 tenths of a dollar” which is equal to “half a dollar”, “50¢” or “50 cents”
$.05 = “5 hundredths of a dollar” which is equal to “One 20th of a dollar”, “5¢” or “5 cents”

Clearly the issue confuses a lot of people. If you’re still not sure, let me know.

By: T-Nel

T-Nel — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:12:51 +0000

LOL. reminds me of a guy that told me .8 (with cent sign behind it) means .008 – I thought he meant 80 cent not 8 thousandths of a cent.

Sorry, but I still don’t know the difference. – I think it’s a matter of PUNCTUATION.. – In other words where and when should we use a $ or a cent sign. – Noted your keyboard doesn’t have a cent sign (which is why I have to spell out “cent sign” instead of just hitting a symbol)

But our keyboards does however have a Dollar sign and period (which can be used as a decimal)

Reason being is because anything after a decimal is considered CENT (or change).

$0.002 is 2 thousandths of a Dollar. “2 thousandths of a dollars” written in numbers is 0.002 (cent sign)

“THOUSANDTHS” means it will take 1000 of those to get a dollars.

Bottom line if you calculate $35,896 x $.002 or $35,896 x .002 (cent sign) You will come out with 71.792 – Put the dollar or cent sign where you want, but common knowledge tells us that numbers in front of the decimal represent Dollars and numbers after the decimal represent cents. – Somebody owes $71.79 (cent sign)

By: hustlermoneyblog

hustlermoneyblog — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 02:10:44 +0000

haha..so sad…this is too funny