At an airport transit lounge in the Netherlands many years ago, a
cashier quoted a price to me as "eighteen guilders fifty", so the
concept of decimal currency gets reworded for practical reasons, I
guess. I don't think most Americans would want to revert to pounds,
shillings, and pence, though.
The nomenclature of US coinage, though, shows we aren't thinking
decimally. We have one-cent and five-cent pieces, but the piece worth
ten cents is officially called a dime, the 25c piece is officially
called a quarter dollar, and the fifty-cent piece is officially called a
half dollar; we do not mark our 10, 25,and 50-cent coins with those
number values in cents. This went further into some old, informal
nomenclature from our gold coinage: a 5-collar coin was a half eagle, 10
dollars an eagle, and twenty dollars a double eagle.
BTW, a wise numismatist once pointed out that the US one-cent piece is
NOT a penny---just a one-cent piece.
kilopascal wrote:
>
> 2000-12-13
>
> It's funny you brought this up as I was recently thinking about this. We
> feel that the public should embrace metric on its decimal nature because our
> money is decimally based. But is it really? Yes, we may write money in the
> format of "4.37", but do we don't say four point three seven dollars; we say
> 4 dollars AND thirty seven cents. Americans say it and understand it like
> they do feet and inches. Just like we would say 4 feet and 37 inches.
> There is no difference in the spoken and understood formats. Look at how we
> write checks. We write it as FOUR AND 37/100 DOLLARS. We have to get the
> fractions in there somehow. Some people even read decimals as fractions.
> 7.575 would be read not as seven point five seven five, but as 7 AND five
> hundred seventy five thousandths. It is read as a fraction, not as a
> decimal.
>
> As for this technician, this revelation should be brought to her superiors.
> She can put someone's life in danger. If she has no clue as to the
> structure of SI, can not convert grams to its submultiples and back, she is
> libel to make a serious mistake. How does she handle micrograms vs.
> milligrams. How does she calculate dosage based on grams per kilogram of
> body mass? You have the responsibility to make a big noise. If you don't
> say something to someone, you are part of the problem and may also be held
> liable for her error. Don't let this one ride.
>
> And, why do I have this feeling that if this technician was male, this
> technician would know the structure of SI?
>
> John
>
> Keiner ist hoffnungsloser versklavt als derjenige, der irrt�mlich glaubt
> frei zu sein.
>
> There are none more hopelessly enslaved then those who falsely believe they
> are free!
>
> Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of Paul Trusten
> Sent: Wednesday, 2000-12-13 18:10
> To: U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: [USMA:9730] thinking decimally
>
> The other day, I noticed something at work which suggested to me part of
> the problem with the US and metrication: we Americans lack mental
> facility in thinking decimally.
>
> Looking at the expression $0.25, I wonder how many of us just say
> "twenty five cents" without trying to move any decimal points around.
> This came up when one of the pharmacy technicians asked me why I put
> "0.55 gram" on a certain label. I replied that I try to keep the data on
> the label similar to the data from the medication order itself (the
> doctor had ordered the drug in GRAMS, and 0.55 g was an appropriate
> dose), but, yes, I could just as easily have labeled the product "550
> mg". The technician didn't like "0.55 gram", saying she would "have
> trouble converting" to milligrams! We are creatures of habit, not
> wanting to accept a mathematical convenience when presented with one.
> --
> Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
> 3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apt. 122
> Midland TX 79707-2872 USA
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "No one from the Audubon Society has yet documented the
> finding of a modified barium swallow."
> --Byrd Ona Wyng, Forensic Ornithologist
>
> "Free Billy Rubin!" ---Medical Technologists' protest cry
--
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apt. 122
Midland TX 79707-2872 USA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"No one from the Audubon Society has yet documented the
finding of a modified barium swallow."
--Byrd Ona Wyng, Forensic Ornithologist
"Free Billy Rubin!" ---Medical Technologists' protest cry
