Way back in the olden days (soapstone pencils and slate boards), we
wrote mixed fractions with a hyphen. So four and a half would be written
as 4-1/2. That made it distinct from the fraction 41/2. Spaces were used
around minus signs (operators in math), so one could write
4-1/2 - 1-3/4 = 2-3/4
which was just a heck of a lot of fun. I never learned how to handle
mixed fractions on the digital calculator* -- an abacus -- that I used
at the time, though I'm sure there was a method for that.
Jim
* properly speaking, the abacus is more like a register or accumulator
than a calculator.
Paul Trusten wrote:
I don't know if it still is, but baseball's nickname has been "America's
national pastime." All the time that I was growing up, one aspect of
team standings, namely, the number of games behind (GB) the leader a
team iswas reported the same way stock prices were reported--in mixed
fractions, i.e., four and one-half games were always "4 1/2.". Today, I
noticed that both the Boston Red Sox and ESPN Web sites are reporting GB
with decimal points! I don't see anybody needing to be reported as 4.25
games behind (a quarter-game doesn't happen), but here's another advance
for decimal measurement. Might be just a computer thing, though--posting
the GB online probably doesn't lend itself to mixed fractions. But, this
long-time mixed fraction result has now been nevertheless decimalized.
Buy me some peanuts and about 100 g of Cracker Jack while you're at it,
baseball!
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
www.metric.org <http://www.metric.org>
3609 Caldera Blvd. Apt. 122
Midland TX 79707-2872 US
+1(432)528-7724
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(H) 931.657.3107
(C) 931.212.0267
