We used to have a wonderful duodecimal system.
We used to have :-
Half crowns (8 in the pound)
Florins (10 in the pound)
Shillings (20 in the pound)
Pence (240 in the pound and hence 12 in a shilling)
Half-pennies (480 in the pound)
Farthings (960 in the pound)
Just look at these numbers . They are all divisable by 2 or 4 or 8 and 10 except for the half crown. This made dealing with fractions of a pound very easy.
However, we used to have to learn funnies like 6/8 was a third of a pound and 13/4 was two thirds.
6/8 means 6 shillings & 8 pence
2006-08-24
23:54:44
·
12 answers
·
asked by
Anonymous
in
Mathematics