From: Alex LeDonne <aledonne.listmail@...>
Date: 2007-09-07T04:49:42+09:00
Subject: Re: Count and Say (#138)

On 9/6/07, Phrogz <phrogz@mac.com> wrote:
> Ruby Quiz wrote:
> >       0. LOOK AND SAY
> >       1. TWO A ONE D ONE K ONE L ONE N TWO O ONE S ONE Y
> >       2. ONE A ONE D SIX E ONE K ONE L SEVEN N NINE O ONE S TWO T TWO W ONE Y
> >       3. ONE A ONE D TEN E TWO I ONE K ONE L TEN N NINE O THREE S THREE T ONE V
> >          THREE W ONE X ONE Y
> >
> > and so on. (Note the difference between this and the L&S sequence--the letters
> > are counted rather than read in order). Eric wants to know when the sequence
> > enters a cycle, and how long that cycle is. Well?
>
> In case the string gets quite long, what is the canonical English
> representation (for this quiz) of:
> 101 - "One hundred one" or "One hundred and one"? (Not "One Oh One", I
> suppose.)
>
> (From that answer I suppose I can extrapolate the answer for similar
> edge cases, largely involving the presence of absence of the word
> 'and'.)

I was taught in the US that "and" in a spelled out number designates
the decimal point. So, "ONE HUNDRED ONE" would be 101, while "ONE
HUNDRED AND ONE TENTH" would be 100.1 - "ONE HUNDRED AND ONE" would
then be considered an incorrect designation. I think this is based on
check-writing/banking standards.

But I have heard that others learned by other standards both in the US
and elsewhere.

-A