Your first encounter with fractions may have been the fourths on an inch ruler.
- 1/4 = 0.25
- 2/4 = 0.5
- (2/4 = 1/2)
- 3/4 = 0.75
Kids playing with a calculator soon notice things like the thirds:
- 1/3 = 0.333333333
- 2/3 = 0.666666667
Someone mentions that what is really happening is that a single number is repeating again and again and again forever. For the 2/3 the last number went to a 7 because of something called roundup.
All the above is the regular stuff and what comes next is somewhat crazy.
What if we told you there is a number system where the number 2 will give you a length of 0.5 and the number 4 will get you a length of 0.25?
There is a method to the madness. That (weird) system is using the number 4 to count the number of units that must be put together to get a total length of 1.
- 4 units of 0.25 will add up to 1
- 2 units of 0.5 will add up to 1
For the graphic below we will say that the red vector has a length of 4 and a purple vector (any one of the three) has a length of 0.333 approximately.
We could type these as 4/1 and 1/3.
A person who uses the alternative system sees 3 for purple and 1/4 for red.
Vectoreverything 