As a Physicist who grew up in England I learnt both systems. When I came to
the USA with its decimal monetary system (England was still on the old 240
pennies to the Pound) I learnt an often un appreciated virtue of the
British System. The first time I went to tutor an inner city kid he asked
me to help him with a base 7 math problem! I then realized that 1) we had
never formally learnt different base systems in my English Math classes. 2)
The reason was we already knew different base systems from working with
them in everyday life! So I had no problem helping him with the problems:-)
Cheers,
John
Professor John P.G.Shepherd
Physics Department
University of Wisconsin-River Falls
410 S. 3rd. St.
River Falls,WI 54022
Phone (715)-425-3196, eve. (715)-425-6203
Fax (715)-425-0652
44.88 degrees N, 92.71 degrees W.
