h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Did no-one else make it to the end of this article yet? Oh yes, it is only 5:30am GMT. ('tis 15:30 here in OZ). Another great article, which brings back memories of countless hours in school learning fractions (vulgar and otherwise) and also learning all those complex, weights and measures tables! - ie. before metrication of most weights and measures. I doubt that vulgar fractions (why vulgar?) will make a big comeback as they are incompatible with calculators and computers.

It's not half bad this entry, is it?

Boom! Boom!

Greybeard was right about bringing back memories! Yeech! Two things I remember from those dear old golden rule days - we in USA used the term 'lowest common denominator' rather than 'least...' (and that phrase has become pejorative, used by people to describe the current level of learning, entertainment or whatever they are annoyed about, it implies that each is pitched to the dumbest member of the population). One very USEFUL thing I learned was WHEN to multiply fractions - which is when a problem is stated using the word 'of''. If you hear 1/3 OF 1/6, you know the two should be multiplied, which is counterintuitive - to me, at least. But then maybe I represent the lowest common denominator - math-wise. And we here in the Great Satan still use English measurements for which I am eternally thankful. Shell Gas did begin converting to liters, but when folks multiplied out the cost per liter to its English equivalent, we found what a 'shell game' was. So Shell backed off and went back to charging by gallon and found other ways less egregious to gouge us.

GRRRRRR
English measurements?
u mean Imperial. Firstly they are no more English than Scottish or Welsh. Secondly we don't use them much over here. We use litres and centigrade and centimeters (though I still use inches and feet for height and lengths (of certain things) and miles for long distances (though I use centimeters for short distances).
Of course if u use a computer, they are usually called American units (which seem to be the same as Imperial only they don't use stones and their ton is different to our tonne).

I read this through with some pleasure. I can't say that I enjoyed maths at school all those years ago, but I can now see the simple elegance of a vulgar fraction compared to its digital counterpart. Oh how I miss the pound, the gallon, the acre, the furlong, the chain, the rod, the pole ------.

Gimme my SI units anytime. Try doing any calculations with poundles and all the rest of those silly units. And what's Farenheit [SP?] all about? U can't argue in favour of that, it's pants. Surely a new scale based on water makes more sense.
Of course if u're gonna be silly, then Kelvin is the most proper one although not in day to day usage.

Of course decimal makes more sense but where's the fun in being sensible? There's nothing wrong with thinking Imperial/US/whatever and doing the fancy calculating in decimal. My poor old brain has been coping with that since we lost Pounds, shillings and pence but I expect people were having this discussion when they lost the guinea, the crown and the groat!

No, I mean like measuring pressure in mm of mercury. That is difficult to do anything to. If pressure is measured in N/m&178; then one can easily turn that to force exerted on a certain area.
Of course you could argue what does mathematics have to do with the 'common' people? I mean most people do very little comparison or calculations based on these units. However I belive that as much as possible the scientific and non-scientific commumities should have has much in common as possible.