How Scientifically Literate Are You?

Lekker!

And the old system was so simple. Four farthings made a penny, four pennies were a groat. Six pennies were a tanner. A shilling was twelve pennies, hence two tanners or three groats. A florin was two shillings, half a crown was two shillings and sixpence, a crown was five shillings, and a pound was twenty shillings, i.e. ten florins or four crowns. A four-shilling piece was colloquially known as a "barmaid's ruin". A guinea was twenty-one shillings, and was the standard basis for assessment of professional fees such as would be paid to doctors and lawyers; pounds and shillings would be used by tradesmen.The British long resisted the change to decimal currency on the grounds that it would be too complicated.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

A similar thing --- this isn't really on-topic, but I'll get it off my chest --- goes on with exchange rates. People argue whether the U.S. is better than Canada or the E.U. or vice-versa with regard to the question of whether the Canadian dollar is worth more than the U.S. dollar or the Euro is worth more than the U.S. dollar. They don't realize that one U.S. dollar is worth 1.01 Canadian dollars which is worth one U.S. dollar, dammit.

Well unless you're innumerate, it's easier to divide by a hundred and get the right answer than it is to divide by 5280 and get the right answer. And if you are innumerate, it's still easier to divide by a hundred and get the right answer than it is to divide by 5280 and get the right answer.I teach kids on weekends, and it is in fact easier to learn how to move the decimal point than to learn to divide by an arbitrary four-digit number. You're far more likely to screw up doing the latter. Or to forget which arbitrary four-digit number you're meant to be dividing by. Arguing by analogy is like using a giraffe as a can-opener.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.