Question

(i) An eight metre long string is cut into three equal parts What is the length of each piece? ii) What if it were cut into six equal parts?​

Answer 1

Answer:

8/3= 2.6666666666666……..

a nonterminating fraction. Not very useful. One has to round it.

Base 3 ( ternary) number system, which has three digits 0,1 and 2.

For a number like xy.z, the place values are 3, 1 and 1/3 for x, y and z respectively.

Decimal 8 is equal to 22 in base 3 number system .( that is , 2*3+2),

Division by 3 involves moving the ternary point one place towards left, resulting in 2.2 in ternary ( that is 2+ 2/3) , which is a compact answer.

Thus, each of the three parts has length 2.2 meters in ternary.