Additional Ciphering Books

The Rousseau Collection has two ciphering books from Isaac Sheaffer, which are workbooks. These books contain math problems dealing with practical applications of math.

Manuscript Number: MS398

Collection: The Rousseau Collection

Title: Ciphering Book

Author: Sheaffer, Isaac

Date: None

Overview: This is a workbook that contains word problems. The topics of discussion include: reduction of decimals, the single rule of three, and calculating expenses. Here is a sample problem: "If a man spends 7 cents a day for spirits and liquor what will it amount to in 4 years?"

You can see that they use the value of 365.25 to account for the extra day in a leap year. The decimal point is not applied until the end of the problem.

Manuscript Number: MS398

Collection: The Rousseau Collection

Title: Ciphering Book

Author: Sheaffer, Isaac

Date: 1847

Overview: This workbook contains problems dealing with loss and gain, bartering, exchange, interest, house allowance, addition and subtraction of irregular fractions. Here is a sample problem: "What is the interest of 500 dollars for 8 months at 6.5 per cent?"

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