The first simulated image of a black hole, calculated with an IBM 7040 computer using 1960 punch cards and hand-plotted by French astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet in 1978 Pro/Processed

54.9k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

Are they punch cards from 1960, or 1,960 punch cards?

25

u/brianingram Jan 16 '22

Quantity

17

u/Vexar Jan 16 '22

Then it needs a comma.

19

u/LeSageBiteman Jan 16 '22

OP seems to be French and here in France we don’t use commas as a thousand separator, commas are used as a decimal separator, like most European countries (it’s mostly English speaking countries who use a comma as a thousand separator). So we usually use a space as a thousand separator, some European countries use a dot, but the space is advised by scientific organizations to avoid the confusions.

5

u/npjprods Jan 16 '22

OP seems to be French and here in France we don’t use commas as a thousand separator

yup, my mistake

1

u/greystar07 Jan 17 '22

Tbf, lots of people in America don’t use the comma either. While it may be the proper notation I’d say I see it more without a comma than with one. If dude didnt use some intuition, isn’t op’s fault.

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u/assimsera Jan 16 '22

no fucking commas in a number unless it's a decimal. If the number is too big to be immediatly readable then write it as a power of 10.

1

u/brianingram Jan 16 '22

Agreed ... it's a hard habit to break.

In every maths class, we were taught to only use a comma in numbers needing five digits or more.

And, then we were introduced to scientific notation.

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u/[deleted] Jan 16 '22

[deleted]

11

u/brianingram Jan 16 '22

I think the question was more along the lines of seeking clarification between whenaboutism or howmanyism.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '22

Has to be how many cards. The actual computer came out in... 1963 I think.

BTW, it was one of the first kinds of computers built out of transistors instead of vacuum tubes or relays.