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The numbers over the beds in this painting show how long it took for decimal numerals to replace Roman in common use. European mathematicians started using decimal in the tenth century, but in everyday situations Roman numerals remained the norm for centuries afterward.

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John McCafferty

Cornelis de Wael, 1592-1667. The Guests of Honour Visiting a Hospital Flanders, between 1640 and 1644 (The Hermitage Museum)

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So what you’re saying is Americans will finally adopt the metric system in about 2420

12:56 PM · Aug 15, 2020

Manuel Hernandez

You can imagine Descartes hanging out with that crowd, thinking there was a better way to label the beds and arrange them in a grid.

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