SQ On a Property of the Interminable Decimals. 



the subtractive number being seven times the proposed dia- 

 meter pushed six places to the right. And similar facilities 

 may be iutroduced, in connexion with long multiplications, 

 whenever the penultimate figure in the multiplier is a 9. I 

 have only one other remark to make in reference to these 

 simple matters. Should any one count the number of figures 

 employed in the first example above, and compare the amount 

 with the number of figures engaged in the common process, 

 no saving will appear to have been effected ; but that time is 

 saved, and the risk of error diminished, by the more simple 

 character of the operation proposed, cannot, I think, be ques- 

 tioned. 



But ^gures may be saved. The above way of employing 



22 

 the multiplier —, is not the best way: the best way is that 



which follows, namely, 



883220 



- ^§ 3TIM/ 



2649660 



126174.-2857 



2775834<-2857 

 1110-3337 



2774723-952 

 I need scarcely say, in conclusion, that the above principles^ 

 applied to the multiplier 3-1416, are in the same way appli- 

 cable to '7854, the fourth part of that multiplier : this may 



be replaced by the more simple multiplier - — -, the above- 



^ X 7 



explained correction being introduced. 



;. uThe readers of this Journal will perhaps pardon me for 

 obtruding upon their attention matters of so truly elementary 

 a character. The composition of the paper has, for a few 

 hours, relieved my mind from the pressure of a most painful 

 and a most unmerited calamity ; and as it is very probable that 

 I shall not encumber these pages again for along time, I crave 

 their indulgence on the ground just stated. 

 London, Dec. 8, 1849. 



[With sincere regret we advert to the circumstance to which our 

 able and valued correspondent refers. — The Royal Belfast Academy, 

 in which Mr. Young has with the highest reputation filled the Chair 

 of Mathematics for sixteen years, having merged in the new College 

 of Ulster, he has been superseded, and is now sent adrift upon the 

 world, his library sold, or rather thrown away, and his large family 



