Posted by:
Sarah (---.in-addr.btopenworld.com)
Base 10 is a great deal easier when you are doing your calculations in your head, as I frequently do. When I was quite a small girl, not long after the decimal system had been introduced, I decided to buy my dad a box of liqueur chocolates for Christmas (in those more innocent days it was still possible for a child to buy such a thing as a gift). The shop had two different boxes, each with a different weight and price, and one was not a multiple of the other. The assistant asked me which I wanted, and I said I would have to think about it for a moment, because I should prefer to buy the one which was the better value (that was clearly my dad's genes talking!). I did a quick calculation, not exact but to a good enough approximation to get the correct answer, and bought the right box, much to the astonishment of the assistant.
Now I'm not telling this story in order to boast, merely to point out that even an intelligent and numerate eight-year-old might have balked at doing the same mental calculation with shillings and pence.
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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)
Sarah