Zimbabwe slashes 16 zeros from currency but dollar still a joke

euronews ^ | 6-12-2015

[FredZarguna]

Actually, within the limits of significance it doesn't really matter, but ... the definition is the number of carbon atoms in a sample of exactly 12 grams pure carbon 12.

I can't now find a reference, but I vaguely recollect that hydrogen hasn't been used since 1933.

Hydrogen always seemed to make more sense to me. No nuclear binding energy to account for if the sample is pure ¹₁H. Effectively the mass of 18 grams of H₂ would be identical to the mass of a 2 moles of electrons plus a 2 moles of protons -- the electron-proton binding energy is, I believe, negligible to the degree of precision measurable.

But while conceptually simpler, I believe the constant itself was more easily fixed by x-ray crystallography. I first learned of it as 6.02 x 10²³ then as 6.023 x 10²³. It was changed [to four significant digits] in 1973, I think to 6.022 x 10²³.

Anyway, the paper a trillion dollar Zimbabwe note is printed on has to be worth more than the currency, and eventually, even the mole will be too small. Then they'll print googolbucks.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I first learned of it as 6.02 x 1023 then as 6.023 x 1023. It was changed [to four significant digits] in 1973, I think to 6.022 x 1023.

Iearned it as 6.023 × 10²³ back in ’57. I remember noticing much later that it was quoted as being slightly different, but – not having had any reason to use it after college – I didn’t trouble to commit the updated, more-exact number to memory.

6.023 is close enough for government work, far as I’m concerned.

[FredZarguna]

18 grams, obviously 2 grams. Water on the brain.

[MeshugeMikey]

no but I do have the wheelbarrow Id need to haul them to the store to buy one loaf of mouldy bread...

[Rome2000]

I need to get a bunch of those and hand them out to able bodied beggars.

[Rome2000]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=zimbabwe+currency