Another feeling old thread - pre-decimal currency

[simon.r]

It might be ok adding two numbers, but adding a column? When you get the total of say 138 pennies, you then have to divide it by 12 and get the quotient and the remainder. So instead of one opportunity of error (adding it up wrong) you now have 3 places to get it wrong. And then you move to the next column.

I reckon if kids were still taught that and were able to carry out mental arithmetic to that level we'd still have an empire

 

[Drago]

We had an Empire because everyone was so angry about having to do so much maths working out their change, so we went abroad to take it out on everyone else.

 

[youngoldbloke]

You've been taught your 12 times table, so, eleven times12 = 132, 6 left over, so 11/6, or, you already know that 12 x 12 = 144 (144d = 12/-), so 138d is 6d less, so 11/6 - easy when your used to it

 

[youngoldbloke]

[QUOTE 4901874, member: 259"]There was rejoicing in our primary school when it was announced we didn't have to calculate in old money any more. It used to terrify me. And as for stones, pounds and frigging ounces...[/QUOTE]
No problem, I still know my 14 and 16 times tables.

 

[smutchin]

When you get the total of say 138 pennies

11/6

Or 57.5p, if you were born after 1971.

 

[smutchin]

easy when your used to it

That's the key point. Those who were brought up with it are used to it.

For everyone else, it depends how competent/confident you are at mental arithmetic, but to go back to @nickyboy's comment, there's no 'trick' to it.

The actual maths involved is fairly basic stuff.

 

[jefmcg]

No one says it's impossible, just that it's more complicated. And every time you do a calculation, you increase the chance of error.

11/6

Or 57.5p, if you were born after 1971.

I make it $A1.15

Of course, that was before the Brexit vote.

 

[smutchin]

it's more complicated

In another thread recently, you picked someone up on not having a grasp of the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs. Some would regard simple mental arithmetic as somewhat less complex than the nuances of English grammar.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Groats anyone?

 

[simon.r]

In another thread recently, you picked someone up on not having a grasp of the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs. Some would regard simple mental arithmetic as somewhat less complex than the nuances of English grammar.

Is that a left / right brain thing? I find relatively complicated mathematical rules easier to pick up and remember than the more obscure grammatical rules.

 

[jefmcg]

In another thread recently, you picked someone up on not having a grasp of the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs. Some would regard simple mental arithmetic as somewhat less complex than the nuances of English grammar.

Um, no I didn't. I was "corrected" by someone who didn't understand that verbs have tenses, and responded.

Going for a simpler, less error prone arithmetic is good common sense, and decimal currency gives us that. Arithmetic would be even easier if we had a base 12 numbering system and matching currency, but we have ten digits, so what are you going to?

 

[jefmcg]

Is that a left / right brain thing? I find relatively complicated mathematical rules easier to pick up and remember than the more obscure grammatical rules.

Lol.

I am better at maths than English. I enrolled in night school in my final year at school, because my school didn't offer the advanced maths classes and I didn't want to change schools. I got a gold medal in a nation wide school maths competition and (nerd alert) went to a maths camp one summer. If I can't sleep, I generate 5 and 6 digit numbers in my head and factorise them, then multiply them back out to make sure I got the maths right.

You don't have to find arithmetic hard to want it to be as simple as it can be.

 

[nickyboy]

That's the key point. Those who were brought up with it are used to it.

For everyone else, it depends how competent/confident you are at mental arithmetic, but to go back to @nickyboy's comment, there's no 'trick' to it.

The actual maths involved is fairly basic stuff.

Of course I can add and subtract with £/s/d but I'm ok with mental arithmetic. My question , I guess, was that there are loads of people who aren't particularly good at mental arithmetic. They find working out the change in a decimal system hard enough. How did folk manage with the more complex pre decimal system?

 

[screenman]

Of course I can add and subtract with £/s/d but I'm ok with mental arithmetic. My question , I guess, was that there are loads of people who aren't particularly good at mental arithmetic. They find working out the change in a decimal system hard enough. How did folk manage with the more complex pre decimal system?

I can honestly say I did not know if anybody who had problems with old money, but many of them had huge problems with the new, off really.

 

[rich p]

Of course I can add and subtract with £/s/d but I'm ok with mental arithmetic. My question , I guess, was that there are loads of people who aren't particularly good at mental arithmetic. They find working out the change in a decimal system hard enough. How did folk manage with the more complex pre decimal system?

I dunno but, in the days before mixing with all the clever guys (gender neutral ) on CycleChat, I was known to play darts with the less obviously gifted.
They were brilliant at addition, subtraction and the more complex issues around working out a 'finish' sequence.
I think we, and they, learned what we needed to do which was easier for a practical reason than learning for an abstract exercise.