how on earth did you give change pre decimal

Discussion in 'World Coins' started by rickyb, Oct 16, 2007.

  1. I Like Trees

    I Like Trees I mean coins with trees.

    More complications

    Yes

    1 Troy Pound = 12 Troy Ounces

    1 Avoirdupois Pound = 16 Avoirdupois Ounces


    avoirdupois comes from from anglo-French. It refers to products sold by weight, as opposed to volume or some other unit. The avoirdupois ounce is so called by association with such goods.
     
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  3. I Like Trees

    I Like Trees I mean coins with trees.

    Time is not base 10!

    It sure isn't.

    45 minutes after 2:55 is not 3:00.

    I hate time not being decimal!
     
  4. hontonai

    hontonai Registered Contrarian

    Get real!

    The last time I checked, there were 24 hours per day, in two 12 hour increments; each hour consisting of 60 minutes (5 x 12), and 60 seconds per minute.

    10 minutes after 12:55 is NOT 12:65 either!
     
  5. Cloudsweeper99

    Cloudsweeper99 Treasure Hunter

    Personally, I've never thought the metric system was superior to any other, particularly when it comes to money.
     
  6. 900fine

    900fine doggone it people like me

    If we were in base 12, the clock's numerals would be as follows :

    1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C *

    But they aren't.

    The numerals are as follows :

    1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

    Those last three values ARE EXPRESSED IN BASE 10.

    When you say there are 60 minutes in an hour, you expressed the value 60 in base 10, just like you expressed 24 in base 10. Every one of the values you mentioned (5, 12, 24, and 60) were expressed in base 10.

    We seem to have confounded the notion of decimal time with base 10 time. They are entirely different issues.

    It would be possible to redefine the second such that there are 100 seconds in a minute, 100 minutes in an hour, and 10 hours in a day (or 20, if you like). That would be decimal time, or metric time if you prefer. In fact, I believe that was tried in the early days of the French Revolution.

    But if we did that, you still have the same problem. Ten minutes after 9:99 would not be 9:109; speaking to I_Like_Tree's point. Does that mean we aren't in base 10 ? Of course not; clearly, we are in base 10.

    Hontonai, I truly don't intend to talk down to you or anyone else. I hope you aren't offended.

    * since we use A-F for base 16 numerals above 9, it is reasonable to assume we should use A-C for base 12 numerals above 9
     
  7. hontonai

    hontonai Registered Contrarian

    It's equally reasonable to use the appropriate decimal numbers simply because of familiarity.
     
  8. clembo

    clembo A closed mind is no mind

    SOMEBODY has to say it.

    You guys have to much time on your hands!
     
  9. 900fine

    900fine doggone it people like me

    ...and express them in base 10, because of familiarity.

    Which is why time is expressed in base 10. Which it is.
     
  10. 900fine

    900fine doggone it people like me

    It's better than reruns of Oprah ! :D
     
  11. clembo

    clembo A closed mind is no mind


    LMAO!

    You have no idea how funny that is at this point so I'll have to explain.

    My wife (who does watch her share of Oprah) sent a youtube video to the studio months ago. It's really cool actually as it's a bunch of over 90 year old (I believe) Brits singing "My Generation" by the Who. Intended to raise money for the elderly over there basically.

    So two days ago the phone rings and it's Oprah's people! They had some extra studio tickets and wanted to know if she wanted to come for free. Now understand that people wait months for these tickets and they wanted to know if she wanted to come yesterday.

    Well, we live about 30 miles from Chicago so she went. They put her in the second row. They taped two shows on aging as it were. The first airs on Novemeber 1.

    Kinda cool actually and although I don't watch Oprah we'll be recording that one. Look for my wife - she'll look like a lady that's married to a guy that you have never seen before.
     
  12. gxseries

    gxseries Coin Collector

    There is a good reason why Australia decided to dump the dumb pre decimal system. Tell me more about it after you see the maths.

    http://www.gxseries.com/numis/austype/aus_decimal.htm

    Sorry, too lazy to find out the youtube link - just remembered attaching it on my site.
     
  13. I Like Trees

    I Like Trees I mean coins with trees.

    Are you sure time is base 10?

    Watch the video in YouTube HERE.

    Moral of the film: doing maths with units different to one's counting system (pounds, shillings, pence vs 0-9 counting) is needlessly difficult.

    When the unit changes at the same point as the decimal, it makes things less complicated. Hurray for everyone!

    What a splendid little ditty! I shall be humming it all week now!
     
  14. I Like Trees

    I Like Trees I mean coins with trees.

    Let's be deci-sive.

    [​IMG]
    I guess the rulers at your house look like this (finally finished pic), unless you're using inches, feet, and
    yards as a base 10 system. In that case, I suppose you express what would normally be -C"- as 12".

    Britons wrote "£4/19/11" not "£4/J/B". (for "Four Pounds, 19 Shillings, and 11 pence) I suppose this means they were on a base ten monetary system.
    To quote the first sentence of the Wikipeida at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal: "The decimal (base ten or occasionally denary) numeral system has ten as its base." [Wikipedia's bolding, not mine.] Expressing something is a decimal writing system [FONT=&quot]– [/FONT]which is the same thing as a base ten writing system[FONT=&quot] – [/FONT]does not make it a base ten or decimal measurement of anything.

    Just as w
    riting the senatance "我能请有一些鞋带吗?" as "Wǒ néng qǐng xiē xié dài ma?" does not make Mandarin a romance language.

    Ten minutes after 9:99 could not be 9:109 because 9 is the largest number than can fit in a single place value. That is how number-writing systems tend to work. When you fill up one place value you carry over to the next place value dividing by the base of the number system. "1" ten plus "9" tens is "10" tens 10/10=1 so you carry "1" to the next place.

    9:99 would not be 9:109 for the same reason that 67+4 is not Sixty-Eleven (611). The fact that 9:99+0:10 does not equal 9:109 is not evidence that we are in base ten. The fact that you do not fill the "tens" place in minutes before changing the number in the hours place however proves we are not in base ten/decimal/denary/number of fingers of my hands/whatever you want to call it.
     
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