On 11 Jul 2012, at 12:15, Leif Halvard Silli wrote: > Hans Aberg, Wed, 11 Jul 2012 10:20:11 +0200: >>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obelus >>> >>> Thanks. Scandinavia's history indicates that if known in Denmark, >>> Norway and Finland, then it should be known on Iceland and in Sweden >>> too. >> >> I can't recall the obelus being used for anything math in Sweden, and >> Bonnier's encyclopedia from 1965, in its "matemmatik" article, says >> that ":" is used for division and "/" to denote fractions. I think it >> is the traditional use, before the days of computers. > > I looked in the Swedish books I have, from around 1810 to 1950, about > time reckoning ([fake Swedish alert:] kalenderstickor, > söndagsbokstäver, påskdags-räkning etc), and I could not find the it, > either ... So, we might belong to different traditions that way. ;-) If > so, then all the more interesting why Finland have it …
Norway picked up the Danish writing system. Swedish perhaps was influenced by French in the past for political reasons; perhaps the Danish conventions come from Germany. I do not know about Finland. Hans
