OLD-TIME SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-BOOKS - online book

An Illustrated history & description Of Schools in the 18th & 19th Centurys.

Home Main Menu Order Support About Search



Share page  


Previous Contents Next

Arithmetic
3"
A workman was hired for 40 days upon this condition, that he should receive 20 cts. for every day he wrought, and should forfeit 10 cts. for every day he was idle; at settlement he received 5 dollars : How many days did he work and how many days was he idle ? Am. wrought 30 days, idle 10.
The most remarkable thing about the above example in the extreme moderateness of the man's charge. It seems rather severe to require a forfeit from a man who is working at twenty cents a day.
A large volume " containing Vulgar, Decimal, and Logarithmical Arithmetick," by Beriah Stevens, was published at "Saratoga Springs'1 in 1822 with a special claim to attention, by reason of a process it introduced for proving the correctness of one's figuring, and which it called " casting out the nines." I reprint the directions for proving subtraction.
Cast the nines out of the minuend, and note down the excess above the nines on a cross; then cast the nines
Previous Contents Next