Once again you've helped all those people who are considering a switch to
metric from imperial, or are simply "in the middle" to make a positive
choice.
If you insult people enough who don't share your opinion - sooner or later
they will submit to you and share your opinion.
I wonder how succesful you have been, Daniel, in promoting the metric system
in your own unique way?
By the way - who else is inferior in your extremely small world?
You've listed pagan, common people, imperial users - how about druids,
working class people, left-handed people, hindus, etc?
From: "Daniel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:34789] Vulgar
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 18:05:32 -0400
You can see from the on-line dictionary meaning as to what the word Vulgar
means now and what the word meant originally. When the word vulgar was
applied to the word fraction it was done so at a time when the word was
synominous with the word common.
It is the same way with the word pagan, which has a derogatory connotation
today. Originally it was meant to describe the Romans who lived in
villages, and thus were considered slow to learn new ideas that people in
the city caught on to quicker. Thus a pagan was considered stupid.
The vulgar or "common people" were considered less educated then the elite
and thus something associated with the common people became thought of as
far less then desirable.
We can see that the metric system is the system chosen by the elite and
better educated and the imperial is the choice of the vulgar pagans.
Dan
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Vulgar
vul·gar ( P ) Pronunciation Key (vlgr)
adj.
1.. Crudely indecent.
2..
1.. Deficient in taste, delicacy, or refinement.
2.. Marked by a lack of good breeding; boorish. See Synonyms at
common.
3.. Offensively excessive in self-display or expenditure;
ostentatious: the huge vulgar houses and cars of the newly rich.
3.. Spoken by or expressed in language spoken by the common people;
vernacular: the technical and vulgar names for an animal species.
4.. Of or associated with the great masses of people; common.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Middle English, from Latin vulgris, from vulgus, the common people.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
vulgar·ly adv.
vulgar·ness n.
Word History: The word vulgar now brings to mind off-color jokes and
offensive epithets, but it once had more neutral meanings. Vulgar is an
example of pejoration, the process by which a word develops negative
meanings over time. The ancestor of vulgar, the Latin word vulgris (from
vulgus, "the common people"), meant "of or belonging to the common people,
everyday," as well as "belonging to or associated with the lower orders."
Vulgris also meant "ordinary," "common (of vocabulary, for example)," and
"shared by all." An extension of this meaning was "sexually promiscuous," a
sense that could have led to the English sense of "indecent." Our word,
first recorded in a work composed in 1391, entered English during the
Middle English period, and in Middle English and later English we find not
only the senses of the Latin word mentioned above but also related senses.
What is common may be seen as debased, and in the 17th century we begin to
find instances of vulgar that make explicit what had been implicit. Vulgar
then came to mean "deficient in taste, delicacy, or refinement." From such
uses vulgar has continued to go downhill, and at present "crudely indecent"
is among the commonest senses of the word.
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Hooper
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Monday, 2005-10-10 13:29
Subject: [USMA:34783] fractions
On 2005 Oct 10 , at 7:33 AM, Stephen Gallagher wrote:
The term "vulgar fraction" has nothing to do with how
nice or beautiful a number is.
On 2005 Oct 10 , at 4:33 AM, Stephen Humphreys wrote:
It might be worth pointing out that creating a psuedo-hostility
between decimal notation and fractions and pretending it has something to
do with metric and imperial is usually the last resort of either side to
win a pointless argument.
I agree with Stephen G. I learned the term "vulgar fraction" a long time
ago before the metric issue was even considered. A vulgar fraction (also
called a common fraction and by some called just a fraction) is a number
expressed as a ratio of two whole numbers.
It is not a pointless argument (as Stephen H. wrote) to emphasize that
metric allows us to eliminate (or at least reduce) the use of common
("vulgar") fractions. Common fractions are used almost exclusively in
measurements done in Ye Olde English mixture of measurements. Not using
that non-metric measuring system would save significant amounts of money
and time in education MAINLY because it would eliminate the need to teach
the arithmetic of common fractions (and mixed numbers).
Common fractions do have some significance aside from Ye Olde English
system, but those uses would not be common and the teaching of them could
be relegated to more advanced courses in mathematics. It would be easier to
teach when students had already studied algebra, for example. (Exceptions
for the common fractions "one half" and "one quarter" could certainly be
made without negating my arguments above.)
In an aside to the main issues, I consider it poor practice to call
common fractions just "fractions" because decimal fractions are also
fractions. Fraction means a part of something less than the whole and
really does not have anything to do with whether it is expressed in ratio
or decimal (or some other) form. In general use, however, we find many
people use the term "fractions" to mean fractions expressed as ratios and
"decimals" to mean fractions expressed as decimal numbers.
Regards,
Bill Hooper
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
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Make it simple; Make it Metric
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