Kilobucks
Kilobucks
(OP)
When providing budget estimates, it is common in our company (and many others) to use "kilobucks" and "megabucks," where 1 kilobuck = $1,000 and 1 megabuck = $1,000,000.
I use a lower case "k" for kilo, since the SI abreviation for kilo is "k," and an uppercase "m" for mega, since the SI abbreviation for mega is "M."
As an example, $350,000 would be abbreviated as $350k, while $1,300,000 would be abbreviated as $1.3M.
Lately, I have noticed that many people use an uppercase "K" to abbreviate kilo.
Which is correct?
I use a lower case "k" for kilo, since the SI abreviation for kilo is "k," and an uppercase "m" for mega, since the SI abbreviation for mega is "M."
As an example, $350,000 would be abbreviated as $350k, while $1,300,000 would be abbreviated as $1.3M.
Lately, I have noticed that many people use an uppercase "K" to abbreviate kilo.
Which is correct?





RE: Kilobucks
RE: Kilobucks
RE: Kilobucks
RE: Kilobucks
I always use and see a capital M (as in $M) for millions of dollars,
For thousands, I don't notice a single convention, possible because lower case and upper case "Ks" are not that different in many computer fonts, possible becasue there is little risk of confusion, and possible I'm just as careless as the next guy in this area.
As to which is correct: I know lower case "m" is for "milli" (as in mm = millimeter), and lower case "k" is for "kilo" (as in km = kilometer), and upper case "M" is for "mega" (as in MPa = MegaPascal).
Now, being an American, also use the abreviation "mil", for 1/1000 of an inch = 1 mil, but I've never used a lowercase "m" for this abbreviation.
RE: Kilobucks
RE: Kilobucks
RE: Kilobucks
Those routinely using K should be suitably chastized and their ignorance made known around the firm!
And why do you need a thousand stags anyway?
KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
RE: Kilobucks
Here, at the new place, there are no conventions so it is free will.
RE: Kilobucks
However, using the SI prefixes "M" and "k" as suffixes for dollar figures is an informal practice at best, so arguing over whether the "k" should be capitalized or not is a rather misplaced argument.
"Megabucks" is definitely slang. I haven't heard "kilobucks" yet.
Hg
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RE: Kilobucks
RE: Kilobucks
I susepct we are just talking about informal notation, not notation according to some standard. If so, who's to say that one person's informal notation is right while another's is wrong?
By the way, I use k.
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RE: Kilobucks
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RE: Kilobucks
In boating, the unit of measurement here in the states is the "boat unit". A boat unit (BU) is equivalent to $100, as in "That new radar display cost me twelve BU's...
old field guy
RE: Kilobucks
RE: Kilobucks
"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
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RE: Kilobucks
They use , instead of . for decimal points.
Both numbers you put Asherang are $1 followed by lots of unnecessary zeros
I thought for this reason that convention was no longer to use , to break up 1000s etc but I see it a lot here in the States.
As to esoteric monetry units:
In the UK, pound coins were refered to as golden beer tokens back in my uni days.
Last I heard the horse racing 'industry' still used guineas
http://home.clara.net/brianp/money.html
KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
RE: Kilobucks
Still, $1,000.00 is clearer than $1K or $1k or $1m or $1M.
"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
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RE: Kilobucks
Writing out $1,000,000.00 seems less clear than $1 million because it would be easy to read it as $1 billion. You have to count up all the pesky zeros as you are reading, instead of having the correct word already on the paper.
RE: Kilobucks
KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
RE: Kilobucks
MBH = 1000 Btu/hr
or,
kW would be kilowatts, but what if it is the first word in a sentence..
Of course my industry is pretty much a hodgepodge of odd numbers (a ton of cooling is 12,000 btu/hr, when you describe a chiller as being a 350 tons it tends to make structural engineers sweat).
RE: Kilobucks
Wes C.
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RE: Kilobucks
"The suffix 'kW' has no business being at the beginning of a sentence."
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: Kilobucks
KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
RE: Kilobucks
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: Kilobucks
-:)
RE: Kilobucks
Cheers!!
RE: Kilobucks
m = micro
M = milli
RE: Kilobucks
tenner, score, pony, monkey
RE: Kilobucks
you save zeros and there is no confution if its $1m (0.001) $1M (1000000) or $1m (million)
Although all the non-engineering types might not know how to multiply...
RE: Kilobucks
RE: Kilobucks
1) correctly as 65kb
2) incorrectly as 65Kb
3) correctly as 64Kb
There is also lot of confusion on Megabytes and Gigabytes.
1Mb=1024x1024 but $1M = 1000x1000x$1
1Gb=1024x1024x1024 but $1G (short billion) = 1000x1000x1000x$1
Some computer manufacturers (especially disk drive distributors) still advertise 1G as 1 billion instead of 1024^3. They always advertise unformatted capacity which is pretty useless to anyone because almost everyone only uses the formatted capacity.
So an 80Gb drive unformatted can be 75Gb formatted. If they had taken the billion interpretation instead of 1024^3 then the 80Gb disk would actually be 75Gb and the formatted capacity would probably be 70Gb.
RE: Kilobucks
Some computer manufacturers (especially disk drive distributors) still advertise 1G as 1 billion instead of 1024^3.
Giga, as a prefix to mean 10^9 rather than 2^30, is technically correct.
Also, the term megabyte for example may mean a 1000*1000 bytes, 1024*1024 bytes, or even 1000*1024 bytes depending not only on who is using the term, but when and in what context. I will refer to "1.44 megabyte floppies" as this is common terminology even if the so called megabyte in this context is thousands of pairs of 512 byte disc sectors.
On the subject of floppy capacities, Wikipedia says ....
However neither 1.47 megabytes nor 1.41 mebibytes is generally used. The number most frequently printed on such floppies is "1.44 MB" which incorrectly combines Base 2 (1440 kibibytes of storage space) with Base 10 terminology to yield 1.44 "kilo-kibibytes" (1.44 * 1000 * 1024 bytes, where kilo=1000 and kibi=1024). Since "kilo-kibibytes" is not an SI standard unit, the label is incorrect and confusing for users. As example, a person using floppies to back-up his hard drive, and expecting 1.44 MB to mean 1.44 million bytes, would miscalculate the number of floppies needed for the project.
I think this is supposed to mean ....
If they had taken the 1024^3 interpretation instead of 1000^3 then the 80Gb disk would be 75Gb ...