In our enthusiasm for SI, it may be that we are, sometimes, inclined to over-react to the use of fractions. Let's not do that!! Duncan -----Original Message----- From: James R. Frysinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: U.S. Metric Association <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: September 26, 2001 14:18 Subject: [USMA:15399] Re: 7/10???... >Marcus, I suspect that you are not a USMA member and thus don't receive >Metric Today. That would account for your not realizing the context of >that "seven tenths" question. > >Jim > >Ma Be wrote: >> >> On Tue, 25 Sep 2001 23:37:41 >> kilopascal wrote: >> >2001-09-25 >> > >> >The 2001 Sep-Oct issue of Metric Today has an error on page 8, the back page. >> > >> >The Answers to Metric Training & Education Test states: >> > >> >7/10 of 1 hectare = 700 square metres. >> >... >> ??? Perhaps this is a typical case of old habits diing hard, but why the heck the " 7/10 "? Shouldn't we practice what we preach? Why not 70% instead? Maybe this fraction thing was the real culprit behind this typo. >> >> I'm not against fractions, but (I'm sorry to say this) IMHO using fractions with the denominator 10 is really wholly utterly unacceptable! I even recall from my earlier education in Brazil (some 30+ years ago) that ALL my teachers strongly condemned this practice at all costs! In other words, we were taught that we should NEVER ever use fractions with factors of 10 in the denominator position!!! Why? Simply because given that society uses the decimal system for counting the proper correct way of showing numbers that are divided by factors of 10 is by simply using the decimal point!!! (Example: 723/1000 would be "incorrect", as it should be written as 0.723. >> >> Now, THAT is what I call effective education! ;-) And reason why you will NEVER see a Brazilian use factors of 10 in the denominator of a fraction. >> >> Marcus >> >> Get 250 color business cards for FREE! >> http://businesscards.lycos.com/vp/fastpath/ > >-- >James R. Frysinger University/College of Charleston >10 Captiva Row Dept. of Physics and Astronomy >Charleston, SC 29407 66 George Street >843.225.0805 Charleston, SC 29424 >http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Cert. Adv. Metrication Specialist 843.953.7644 >
