The famous little jingle "shave and a haircut, two bits"

Most people today have no clue what a "bit" is.

I imagine the future will hold something similar for the penny in all the idioms and cultural phrases we have. What the hell is a penny?

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retrocog 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Exactly. Two bits is a quarter because the US silver dollar was modeled on the Spanish Pillar Dollar, also called pieces of eight. Hence 2/8 (two bits) = 1/4.

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fstarship 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It’s kind of like lots of imperial measurements where we use metric still have these in idioms.

	▲	paulmooreparks 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		"I would walk 500 kilometers" just doesn't sound as romantic.

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barbazoo 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What is a bit, a penny?

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dec0dedab0de 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

1/8, so 2 bits is a quarter.

it comes from old spanish coins that they would cut into eight pieces, or bits.

I learned that after watching one of the pirates of the Caribbean movies and googling pieces of eight.

	▲	retrocog 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		THIS exactly and oops, I replied too quickly :)

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patrickthebold 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Half a quarter.