Q HOW did the Romans express fractions?

A THE Romans didn't have a way of writing fractions in figures. Instead, they were spelled out as words. The Roman for "and a half" was semsique, abbreviated to S or SK. The symbol for a third was T or TK, for two thirds F, Z or FZ, for one quarter G, or a reversed C.

For most calculations in the Roman system, fractions were divided into twelfths or unciae. A semisque represented six unciae, or one half. The unciae was originally one twelfth of a unit of weight called an as, but it later came to mean a twelfth of anything. Twelfths could be easily added together to make quarters, thirds or halves. For example, three unciae was a quarter, four a third and six a half. The word unciae is still remembered today in the word ounce.

The division of fractions into twelfths dominated everyday calculations, but sevenths or eighths would be called septimae or octavae. Three eighths would be written as tres octavae. In scientific circles, Romans also used a sexagesimal system in which measurements were divided into sixtieths.

Q SOME 40 or 50 years ago, a Duchess of Bedford was known as the Flying Duchess. Have you any information on what type of plane she flew? - E Bainbridge, Thornton Watlass.

A THE Flying Duchess was Maria or Mary Carroy (1865-1937), the wife of the 11th Duke of Bedford. She did not learn to fly until she was 61, when she discoved the altitude reduced the buzzing in her ears caused by her increasing deafness.

Mary's flying expeditions were quite adventurous and, in June 1929, with pilot Captain Barnard, she broke the record for flying to India in eight days. The following year, another record was broken when she and her pilot flew from England to Cape Town in 20 days in 175 flying hours. Mary piloted the aircraft herself for short periods.

But it was flying that would eventually cause Mary's death. In 1937, she was flying her de Havilland Gypsy Moth to view the flooded fens of Cambridge. She never returned and wreckage from her aircraft was eventually washed ashore near Great Yarmouth.

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Published: 24/06/2002