This section gives a worked example of volume exchange for trading grain using cross-multiplication.
The relevant unit conversion for capacity is
See Vol. I §3 (Units of capacity).
Chinese source text: Version A, Version B, Version C, Version D.
Unless noted otherwise, I follow the text from Version D, 《知不足齋叢書》本.
Source text | Target text | Notes |
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今有粟四斗五升。問為糳米幾何。 答曰、二斗一升五分升之三。 |
Suppose there be grain four pecks [and] five quarts.
[We] ask, how much be [this in] intricate grain? Answer saith: two pecks, one quart, [and] three fifths of [a] quart. |
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術曰、置粟四十五升。以二約糳米率二十四、得一十二。乘之、得五百四十升為實。 | Method saith: put [down the] grain forty-five quarts. Reducing [the] intricate grain rate twenty-four by two, resulteth in twelve. Multiplying them, resulteth in five hundred [and] forty quarts as [the] dividend. |
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以二約粟率五十、得二十五為法。 | Reducing [the] grain rate fifty by two, resulteth in twenty-five as [the] divisor. | |
除之、不盡、以等數約之、而命分。 | Dividing them, [there be a] remainder; reduce it by [the] equal number, and name [it for a] fraction. |
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Conway (2023). "Sun Tzŭ's Computational Classic: Volume II §7". <https://yawnoc.github.io/sun-tzu/ii/7> Accessed yyyy-mm-dd.