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Round Numbers#

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

Abstract

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Type
Posterminaries
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1995

Footnotes

#

This is the long-delayed sequel to the Posterminaries, “Being Odd: Getting Even,” MRS Bulletin, Vol. XVIII, No. 9 (September, 1993) p. 96. I. From Carl Sandburg, The American Songbag (2927).

References

1. From Sandburg, Carl , The American Songbag (2927).Google Scholar
2. “Round” as used here should not be confused with its ancestral arithmetic verb, “to round off, up or down.” It takes more than dropping the last few decimal places of an unround number to confer roundness.Google Scholar
3. The verb “metrify” derives from a program of metrification intended to abolish our British system of units. It is not to be confused with “metricate” from “metrication” which is a newer quality movement term implying measurement of all activities against metrics. Not that the former could not have used some of the latter.Google Scholar
4. Somehow this does not seem to contradict my direct intuitive appreciation for centimeters in the lab.Google Scholar
5. An equally interesting question to consider is whether one is in violation of the law when cruising below 30 mph but speeding above 48 kph in the twilight zone, 48 < υ (kph) < 48.28032(29.8258 < υ (mph) < 30).Google Scholar
6. As one might expect in nations really on the metric system, M0D(5) = 0 applies to kph.Google Scholar
7. Purists will insist that the next millennium will not actually begin until year 2001, but the power of round numbers will drown them out.Google Scholar
8. Speaking of phone numbers, most large companies have main phone numbers with three trailing zeroes. Certainly the Fortune 500 need that extra zero.Google Scholar
9.Barnard, Fred R. in Printer's Ink, (10 March 1927) p. 114.Google Scholar
10. From: The Web and the Rock, Wolfe, Thomas (1939) and (without the friendly) Walker Bush, George Herbert , Republican National Convention, New Orleans, August 18,1988.Google Scholar
11. From The Way of Lao-tzu (c.604-c.531 B.C.)Google Scholar
12.Kennedy, John Fitzgerald , Inaugural Address, January 20,1961.Google Scholar
13. Paraphrased from Duchess of Malfi, Webster, John , (1623) Act IV, se. 2.Google Scholar
14. Black Elk (Hehaka Sapa) as told through Neihardt, John G. , Black Elk Speaks, Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux (1961).Google Scholar
15. From Kaufmann, E.N. , Circles, unpublished.Google Scholar
16. After USA Today, Friday, May 12, 1995,Google Scholar