Practice

Practice, in Arithmetic, is the name given to a method, or rather a system of expedients, for shortening or avoiding the operation of compound multiplication. The nature of the expedients will be best understood by an example: Suppose that the price of 64,875 articles at £2 17s. 6d. is required. It is obvious that the price, at £1, would be £64,875; therefore, at £2, it is £129,750; at 10s. it is the half of that at £1, viz. £32,437, 10s.; at 5s., the half of this last sum, or £16,218, 15s.; and at 2s. 6d., the half of this, or £8109, 7s. 6d. The sum of these partial prices gives the whole price.