Periods, Punctuation and Mathematical Usage

The same glyph has two separate uses with regard to numbers, the one applied being determined by the country it is used in: as a decimal separator and in presenting large numbers in a more readable form. In most English-speaking countries, the full stop has the former usage while a comma is used for the latter:

“1,000,000” (One million)
“1,000.000” (One thousand)

In much of Europe, however, a comma is used as a decimal separator, while a full stop is used for the presentation of large numbers.

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