Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Russian ruble was the first decimal currency to be used in Europe, dating to 1704, though China had been using a decimal system for at least 2000 years. [2] Elsewhere, the Coinage Act of 1792 introduced decimal currency to the United States, the first English-speaking country to adopt a decimalised currency.
1789 — Jurij Vega improves Machin's formula and computes π to 140 decimal places. 1949 — John von Neumann computes π to 2,037 decimal places using ENIAC. 1961 — Daniel Shanks and John Wrench compute π to 100,000 decimal places using an inverse-tangent identity and an IBM-7090 computer.
It is for this reason that many are surprised to discover that 1/10 + ... + 1/10 (addition of 10 numbers) differs from 1 in binary floating point arithmetic. In fact, the only binary fractions with terminating expansions are of the form of an integer divided by a power of 2, which 1/10 is not. The final conversion is from binary to decimal ...
Decimal systems typically had memory configured in whole decimal multiples, e.g., blocks of 100 and later 1000. The unit abbreviation ' K ' or ' k ' if it was used, represented multiplication by 1000. Binary memory had sizes of powers of two or small multiples thereof.
The Babylonians lacked, however, an equivalent of the decimal point, and so the place value of a symbol often had to be inferred from the context. [20] By the Seleucid period, the Babylonians had developed a zero symbol as a placeholder for empty positions; however it was only used for intermediate positions. [20]
The troy pound (~373.2 g) used in England and the United States for monetary purposes, like the Roman pound, was divided into 12 ounces, but the Roman uncia (ounce) was smaller. The carat is a unit for measuring gemstones that had its origin in the carob seed, which later was standardized at 1/144 ounce and then 0.2 gram.
When James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne in 1603, England and Scotland had different systems of measure. Superficially the English and the Scots units of measure were similar – many had the same names – but there were differences in their sizes: in particular the Scots pint and gallon were more than twice the size of their English counterparts. [3]
A fleeting hint of an ancient decimal or metric system may be found in the Mohenjo-Daro ruler, which uses a base length of 1.32 inches (33.5 mm) and is very precisely divided with decimal markings. Bricks from that period are consistent with this unit, but this usage appears not to have survived, as later systems in India are non-metric ...