《孫子算經卷下》 "Sun Tzŭ's Computational Classic: Volume III"
§20. Unit conversion (1)

This section gives a worked example of unit conversion.

The relevant unit conversion for weight is

1 \unit{catty~(斤)} = 16 \unit{taels~(兩)}.

See Vol. I §2 (Units of weight).

Translation

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
今有黃金一斤、直錢一十萬。問兩直幾何。 Suppose there be gold one catty, worth coins ten myriad. [We] ask, how much [be each] tael worth?
  • 黃金： gold; lit. yellow gold
答曰、六千二百五十錢。 Answer saith: six thousand two hundred [and] fifty coins.
術曰、置錢一十萬、以一十六兩除之、即得。 Method saith: put [down the] coins ten myriad; dividing it by sixteen taels, [we] are done.
  • In modern notation,
    \begin{aligned} \frac{100000 \unit{coins}}{1 \unit{catty}} &= \frac{100000 \unit{coins}}{16 \unit{taels}} \\[\tallspace] &= \frac{6250 \unit{coins}}{\unit{tael}}. \end{aligned}

Cite this page

Conway (2023). "Sun Tzŭ's Computational Classic: Volume III §20". <https://yawnoc.github.io/sun-tzu/iii/20> Accessed yyyy-mm-dd.