[PW] Re: Women's, Mother's and Traditional Arithmetic

[Hadden, Robert L ERDC-TEC-VA]

	I'm not familiar with a book on the topic, but there were many
discussions about it in various math classes I took. Women's Arithmetic or
Mother's Math or "Traditional Calculations" or "Folk Figurin'" is defined as
a practical mathematics (time, area, volume, weight, length) as opposed to
the academic mathematics taught today. For example, most of the concepts are
in whole numbers and fractions, and not in decimals. They are expressed in
practical terms, usually to solve real problems.
	This discussion recently came to a head during the endless debate
over when the new century actually began: at 2000 or 2001. Since there is no
year zero, the century is accomplished at 100. So do you count from zero to
nine, or from one to ten? Is it fifteen to three or 2:45? Do you use whole
Roman numerals (just try adding IX.v to VIII.xxv sometime on your fingers,
and see if you get XVII.lxxv or "almost 18"), or Arabic numbers?
	However, in mother's math, the first months leading to the year one
are important, so the year is accomplished when the twelve months comes
around one time. As an example, when the Christ child was six months old, or
eighteen months old, what year was it? Since he was born in December of one
year, was the year completed when his birthday came around, or did it start?
Academics worry the heck out of this, but mothers just know, and don't bother
about foolishness.
	Movable events, such as Easter (six weeks after the second full moon
of the new year or something like that) are folk math, great for finding
cycles in nature for planting grain, slaughtering hogs or tapping trees for
sap, while more sophisticated people want to know exact dates and time. Moms
and Dads know these things, because their Moms and Dads showed them how to
calculate and figure, using discrete items other than arbitrary numbers and
decimals.
	This also lends to the argument about the English method and metric
system. The English method of measurement, as are many others, is based on
the human body measuring space and volume. An ounce is about one mouthful of
water. Eight ounces is a cup, which can be held in two cupped hands. One foot
is the measurement of one foot, which is about size nine, and an average
man's foot. A yard is the length between an outstretched hand and the chin,
which is how kings and mothers' measure cloth, and archers measure their
cloth yard arrows. Traditionalists know what a pinch of salt, a smidgen of
sugar or "cook until browned" are- chemists want to know exactly how much
they are. An acre is the amount of land which can be plowed with a team of
oxen. Does your home sit on an acre of land, or on 4046.856422 square meters?
Which way do you use to describe your home to your Mom over the telephone? I
don't know if there is even an metric expression for the volume of a cord of
wood.
	A mile can be walked in about twenty minutes, which is "a good
stretch of the legs." A fathom is the length of a human body, and is also the
length that a man standing on his tiptoes in a body of water can still hold
his mouth above water and breathe. It is also the measurement of two
outstretched arms, which is how sailors and cowboys still measure lines,
ropes and lariats.
	The metric system is academic, and is based on arbitrary measurements
that have nothing to do with the human condition, such as the 1 millionth
measurement of the distance between Paris and the north pole, or the spectrum
produced by a piece of metal when heated to a certain temperature. Great for
calculating great speeds or distances or temperatures or government deficits,
but nothing beats a mother being able to tell how cold a child is by whether
their nails are blue, and how blue, or how wet by whether or not their
fingers are pruney, or how pruney. 
	Weather reporters in Minnesota often give the projected temperature,
or they can issue a "snuggle alert" for the night's forecast. What is the
exact temperature which prompts a snuggle alert? Moms know, even if
meteorologists don't have a set measurement for it. Ditto for a North
Carolina "three dog night." What's a three dog night? It's cold enough to ask
three hunting dogs up on the bed to help keep you warm, but it isn't a set
number of degrees, because it also depends on whether the oil heater is
working or not, or if you can't quite get the window to close tight, or if
you haven't quite finished the quilt you've been working on.
	So, what does this mean? In Europe, there were many different
measurements and sizes, so when Napoleon conquered and imposed his French
metric systems, at least they were all standardized and could be easily
taxed, something the English system approximates but doesn't complete.
However, in the US, the traditional methods of math and measurement are so
accepted, that the metric system has to come in, pushed by economics and
imposition by government, but is fought tooth and nails.
	So does the human stand on the world and measure about him with human
measurements and practical math, or does he accept and use an artificial math
and measurements?

R. Lee Hadden
Geospatial Information Library (GIL)
Topographic Engineering Center
ATTN: CEERD-TO-I (Hadden)
7701 Telegraph Road
Alexandria, VA 22315-3864
(703) 428-9206
Robert.L.Hadden at erdc.usace.army.mil

-----Original Message-----

Message: 8
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 11:54:29 +0100
From: JT Thompson <jtthompson at eircom.net>
Subject: [PW]  Women's arithmetic
To: list at project-wombat.org
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Some years ago I read a book about zero, which had references to "women's
arithmetic" - a method of arithmetical calculation used in markets, and
apparently much simpler than the method I learned.

According to this book, it was banned in European schools once Arabic numbers
began to be used, with their concepts of dot-one-and-carry.

I've never been able to find out more about "women's arithmetic", and the
explanations of how to do it weren't very good in the book. 
Anyone know of an actual book about it?