> I think that it is usually safe to assume that in any
> reasonably longstanding 'profession' people will have
> come up with ways to do what they need to do.
>
> Can a Heortling farmer figure out what 63 x 17 is? ...
> If it ever did really become important he could probably
> fall back to some counting method using markers which
> would eventually get him an snswer like "It is seven
> gross, five dozen, and three.
I think Bryan is spot on in differentiating between counting and math. They are somewhat different in practice.
Here's a real-world example of a similar, but nearly lost art: how shopkeepers count back change when they don't have a cash register. Anyone remember this? It works like this:
Shopkeeper: "That's $21.47."
Customer: hands over two twenties.
Shopkeeper: "Thank you. $21.47"
Counts out 3 pennies: "$2.48 ... 49 ... 50 ..."
Counts out two quarters: "75 ... 22 dollars ..."
Counts out three ones: "23 .. 24 .. 25 ..."
Counts out a five: "30 ..."
Counts out a ten "and 40."
Hands the change to the customer: "Thank you and come again."
It seems like working teenagers have never seen this. Instead, they rely on higher math (substraction as opposed to counting), though they have the register do it for them. So sad.
Bryan's farmer is going to do the same thing. He won;t have separated his sheep into 63 groups of 17. Instead, he'll have a big herd and count them out in whatever his units are: tens and hundred, dozens and gross, or whatever. Where there is trade, traders will use these units because that is what their customers use. Confusing the customer with fancy outlandish numerology is likely to cause trouble.
Chris
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