I have to agree with Stephen on this. Fractions of all kinds, vulgar,
common, decimal, whatever you call them, are still necessary and
important in the world of mathematics and in everyday life. They should
continue to be taught and I am glad that I was taught them at school. I
was taught metric and not imperial, but there was no reason to not teach
fractions, as they are an important concept in mathematics, and should
not be avoided. Fractions are not exclusively part of imperial, but are
part of mathematics, and should not be equated with imperial (or
metric), but are neutral of measurement systems. Just as are whole
numbers (integers).
David King
Buy UKMA's report "A Very British Mess" ISBN 0750310146
http://www.ukma.org.uk/Docs/pubs.htm
Avoid confusion with conversion, just learn to think metric!
http://www.thinkmetric.org.uk
Stephen Humphreys wrote:
Not surprisingly I'll have to disagree.
I cannot see a point in any time where the teaching of fractions
becomes obsolete.
Once again "metric" has been mixed with "decimal" and "fraction" when
it should not be.
For a country that has not metricated (US, and infact, the UK) it
might be wise to use, as examples, fully metricated countries such as
Germany to realise that fractions remain part of the curriculum,
speach and everyday transactions.
From what I've heard on these forums and others I note that the vast
majority of pro-mets can seperate and distiguish between the
fraction/metrication argument.
Fr
