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Why is a raven like a writing desk?

Thoughts both confusing and enlightening.

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

Thoughts both confusing and enlightening.

Twelve times table

elbeno, 20 October, 201020 October, 2010

It is puzzling to me that in the US, that holdout of the Imperial system of measurement, schoolkids learn up to the ten times table only. When I was at school, I learned up to 12, even though the UK had been metric for a decade already. But apparently nobody of my generation in the US learned beyond 10.

As easy as the metric system is to deal with, I have to say that I think a system based on 12 is better than a system based on 10. 12 is an abundant number, but 10 is an accident of biology.

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Comment

  1. Pater says:
    27 October, 2010 at 2:28 pm

    Metric UK’s longevity when you were taught 12 X Tables… are you sure it was a decade? Not 12 years? It seems an even bet that 12 X anything is abundant, but the 945 X Table is not taught… and that is consistently abundantly odd. Maybe the metric originator was simply an accident of biology too.

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