On Sat, 08 Jul 2000, Clark Jones wrote:
> Randolph Fritz wrote:
> > On Fri, Jul 07, 2000 at 01:11:20AM -0500, Richard Wackerbarth wrote:
> > > Commodities are counted. That, by definition, means that they are
> > > represented by an integer.
> Stocks can also be in fractional shares, thanks to things like stock
> splits and "share-dividends".
OK, guys. Let me try once more.
There is the important matter of UNITS. We are free to "exchange"
(compatible) units at will. Just because you DISPLAY a result in a particular
set of units, you cannot infer that that is the set of units in which it is
measured or counted.
For example, I have an annual report that lists gross sales in thousands of
dollars. It's still a big number. However, if you go back and look at the
books, I'm sure that they reported each sale to the penny.
You've hear the expression "six of one; half a dozen of the other".
Whether you have 18 eggs, 3 half-dozen eggs, or 1.5 dozen eggs, you have the
same number of eggs.
So let's look at your stock split.
Assume that the stock splits "5 for 4" and you started with 10 shares and
they are selling for $100 per share before the split. Your equity is worth
$1000. After the split, (ignoring any price change) each new share would be
worth 4/5 * $100 = $80.
Now, you will have 5/4 * 10 = 12 2/4 shares, still worth the same $1000.
There are two things that could happen. The company might decide that they
will now count in quarter shares and you now have 50 of those. (You had 40
before the split and got 10 more in the 5/4 split)
The other possibility is that the company will purchase your fractional share
and you will have 12 shares and $40 cash.
Note that in the first case, the price could be expressed as either $20 per
quarter share or $80 per share.
> Also, there can be need to deal with things like "4 pounds, 3 and a half
> ounces"... now, are these avoirdupois pounds (U.S. "standard" for most
> things, 16 ounces to the pound) or troy pounds (used for precious metals,
> 12 ounces to the pound)?
In either case they are some integral number of half ounces. 135 in the first
case and 103 in the second. However, the latter is also 2060 pennyweight.
> Hmmm... I don't recall anybody mentioning "time" as the unit of measure...
> convert to seconds? minutes? hours? days? weeks? months? years?
> I often deal with measurements in nanoseconds... many things get charged
> for by unit time... e.g., phone calls, wages, room rents, ...
Rooms are usually charged by the day or week. (OK, so you know a place that
charges by the hour)
The point is that we can count in whatever units we consider appropriate. And
each class of transactions can count in different denominations of the same
"currency".
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