Fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are capable of mutual substitution. A good or commodity in economics is any object or service that increases utility, directly or indirectly, not to be confused with good in a moral or ethical sense (see Utilitarianism and consequentialist ethical theory). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Fungibility versus liquidity

Fungibility is different from liquidity. A good is liquid and tradable if it can be easily exchanged for money or another different good. A good is fungible if one unit of the good is substantially equivalent to another unit of the same good of the same quality at the same time and place. Market liquidity is a business, economics or investment term that refers to an assets ability to be easily converted through an act of buying or selling without causing a significant movement in the price and with minimum loss of value. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... For other uses, see Money (disambiguation). ...

Fungibility does not imply liquidity, and liquidity does not imply fungibility. Diamonds can be bought and sold (the trade is liquid), but individual diamonds are not interchangeable (diamonds are not fungible). Zimbabwean dollar bank notes are interchangeable in London (they are fungible there), but they are not easily traded there (they are not liquid in London). ISO 4217 Code ZWD (initially ZWN) User(s) Zimbabwe Inflation est. ... A £20 Ulster Bank banknote. ...

Fungibility in economics

Examples of highly fungible commodities are petroleum (gasoline), electricity, precious metals, and many currencies. Petro redirects here. ... Electricity (from New Latin Ä“lectricus, amberlike) is a general term for a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. ... For the CSI episode of the same name, see Precious Metal (CSI episode). ... For exchange rates, see here. ...

Fungibility has nothing to do with the ability to exchange one commodity for another. It has everything to do with exchanging one unit of a commodity with another unit of the same commodity.

Fungibility in international relations

In international relations, the term fungibility is usually applied to the power of states.^{[citation needed]} International relations theorists who believe that power is fungible see different types of power as reinforcing each other.^{[citation needed]} By way of analogy: with power as a fungible commodity, a state may translate its economic power into military power (e.g. buy some tanks, military aircraft, and armaments) and vice versa (sell some tanks and aircraft). A major debate in international relations is the degree of fungibility between hard power and soft power.^{[citation needed]} Foreign affairs redirects here. ... In the context of international relations and diplomacy, power (sometimes clarified as international power, national power, or state power) is the ability of one state to influence or control other states. ... For other uses, see State (disambiguation). ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... Hard power is a concept which is mainly used in realism in international relations and refers to national power which comes from military and economic means. ... Soft power is a term used in international relations theory to describe the ability of a political body, such as a state, to indirectly influence the behavior or interests of other political bodies through cultural or ideological means. ...

Fungibility in law

In legal disputes, when one party is compelled to remedy another party as the result of a ruling or adjudication, the appropriate legal remedy may depend on the fungibility of the underlying right, obligation or property interest that is intended to be restored.^[1] Depending on whether the interests of the aggrieved party are fungible (a determination made by the trier of fact), the appropriate remedy may change. For example, a court may require specific performance as a remedy for breach of contract, instead of the more favored remedy of monetary damages.^[2] A legal remedy is the means by which a court of law, usually in the exercise of civil law jurisdiction, enforces a right, imposes a penalty, or makes some other court order. ... Definition of Specific performance In the law of remedies, a specific performance is a demand of a party to perform a specific act. ... The term Damages may refer either to the sum paid or the harm inflicted whereas monetary damages is a more specific phrase refering only to the first definition. ...

Fungibility in science

In Does God Play Dice? The New Mathematics of Chaos, the mathematician Ian Stewart argues that fungibility applies to science as well. The example he uses is that subatomic particle theory is fungible when studying molecules "provided it led to the same general feature of a replicable molecule." Ian Stewart, FRS (b. ...

Another example is the concept of mass, either gravitational or inertial mass. Mass is fungible in all observationally consistent theories of gravitation. All compositions of matter fall identically in vacuum, including binding energies. For other uses, see Mass (disambiguation). ... Gravity is a force of attraction that acts between bodies that have mass. ... This article is about inertia as it applies to local motion. ... Look up Vacuum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Binding energy is the energy required to disassemble a whole into separate parts. ...

Perhaps the ultimate example of fungibility in science is that of identical particles. In quantum mechanics, two elementary particles of identical mass, charge, and spin can be interchanged without any discernable effect. In fact, it is impossible to discern between the particles even in principle. This 'mandatory fungibility' leads to some surprising conclusions, such as the Pauli exclusion principle. Identical particles, or indistinguishable particles, are particles that cannot be distinguished from one another, even in principle. ... The Pauli exclusion principle is a quantum mechanical principle formulated by Wolfgang Pauli in 1925. ...

Fungibility in typography

Johanna Drucker discusses the idea that fungibility may also exist in respect of typography and the recording of information. In her article "The Future of Writing in Terms of its Past: The New Fungibility Factor" she argues that in our new age of technology, the form that written language takes is no longer an important part of the message it conveys. This is due to the fact that the appearance of a message can be changed at the click of a mouse button.^[3] Johanna Drucker is an author, book artist and cultural critic. ...

See also

• Gold standard
• Private currency
• Silver standard

For other uses, see Gold standard (disambiguation). ... A private currency is a currency issued by a private institution. ... The silver standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of silver. ...

References

1. ^ S. Williston, The Law of Contracts § 1338 (1920); Farnsworth, Legal Remedies for Breach of Contract, 70 Colum. L. Rev. 1145, 1147 (1970)
2. ^ Bunge Corp. v. Recker, U.S. Ct. of App., 8th Cir., 1975; Restatement (Second) of Contracts Ch 16. introductory note (1981)
3. ^ Drucker, J. 1995, The Future of Writing, Emigre (Issue 35, Summer 1995).