Re: Recurring decimal - international question

In article <1139349781.558685.277850@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Randy Poe <poespam-trap@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

David McWilliams wrote:
Please help clear up a discussion with a friend.

I live in the USA, born in Scotland, our notation for a recurring
decimal was a period above the the recurring digit, ie 1/3 = .33 with a
dot above the last 3. Whereas my friend, born and bred in the US,
swears he used a vinculum or horizontal line above the last digit. A
colleague from Romania, used parenthesis, ie 0.3(3) to show recurrance.

Further investigation shows, an almost British Empire like, split
between the dot & the vinculum. Does anyone have an information on
this?

I have always lived in the US. I was taught to use the
horizontal line. If the period is more than one digit, the
line goes above the entire recurring portion, e.g.
-------
0.24730856

if the fonts line up, that line above 30856 indicates that
those 5 digits repeat.

In Mexico I was taught two varieties: the horizontal line, and also a
curved line ->under<- the period; hard to do with ASCII, but something
like

123.47389389
\_/

only it would not be that deep, obviously.


--
======================================================================
"It's not denial. I'm just very selective about
what I accept as reality."
--- Calvin ("Calvin and Hobbes")
======================================================================

Arturo Magidin
magidin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

.

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