The metric system has never caught on in the U.S., but when it comes to decimal measures, there is one place where America has been a pioneer. We were one of the first countries to use decimal currency. It’s something most people take for granted nowadays. One dollar equals one hundred cents, so if you …
Right on the southwest corner of the State of Mississippi, there is a confluence of rivers. The Red River, which separates Texas from Oklahoma, meets up with the Mighty Mississippi. A mile to two downstream, a third river splits off from the Mississippi. This is the Atchafalaya River, a distributary river cutting through the heart …
When I was a kid, we watched films about the metric system. (And when I say films, I mean actual reels of film. Most of these movies were made well before I was born.) In any case, these films told us how much better the metric system was than the hodgepodge of inches, pounds and …
Our number system is based on the number ten, which makes sense, since we have ten fingers to count on. The decimal system is the base behind metric measurements, and our whole system of Arabic Numerals. And it works fine for addition, subtraction and multiplication. But the decimal numeral system falls short when it comes …
Have you noticed that no one uses Roman Numerals anymore? If you watch a movie from the mid-20th century, at the end of the credits, you’ll see something like “© MCMLXIII”. (This was especially notable when movies had short end credits.) But nowadays, if you fast forward through fifteen minutes of closing credits, you’ll find …
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