Why does the decimal point matter so much in money?
Dot's Big Job
Why does the decimal point matter so much in money?
Meet the smallest, quietest hero in all of money: the decimal point. It's just a tiny dot. You could miss it if you blinked. And yet this little speck is the difference between buying a coffee and buying a car. How does something so small carry so much weight?
Here's the trick: in a number, every digit's job depends on WHERE it stands. The same digit means different things in different spots. A 5 standing in one place might mean five whole dollars. The very same 5, shifted one step to the right, might mean fifty cents. Position is everything.
