From: Terje Mathisen <terje.mathisen@hda.hydro.com>
Newsgroups: comp.arch.arithmetic,comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Academic priorities
Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 20:01:14 +0200
Message-ID: <d6an53$fbj$2@osl016lin.hda.hydro.com>

Gene Wirchenko wrote:

> Terje Mathisen <terje.mathisen@hda.hydro.com> wrote:
>
>
>>Stan Barr wrote:
>>
>>>20 of something has it's own name, a "score", which should be familiar
>>>to all Americans.  And the French still say "four twenties and twelve"
>>>fot ninety-two!
>>
>>They have absolutely nothing on the danes, who actually say something
>>like 'seks og halv tress' (lit: six and half three_times_twenty), and in
>>reality mean fiftysix :-)
>
>
>      Not 36?  Please explain.

OK:

Tress means sixty, i.e. 3x20
Fjers means eighty: 4x20

Halv-tress is 'halfway to the third twenty', i.e. 2.5 x 20 = 50
Halv-fjers is then 'halgway between tress and fjers, or 3.5 x 20 = 70

Totally, mindbendingly, mixed up? Yes indeed.

Terje

--
- <Terje.Mathisen@hda.hydro.com>
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"