In the world of mathematics decimals, fractions and percents consistently interact with each other on a daily basis. The decimal system has the base in the number ten and soon became a distinguishing characteristic during the nineteenth and twentieth century. The credit for the decimal system students study and use today gives the credit to the Russians. The Russian decimal system remains in place in its current form today from centuries ago. It was the American Revolutionaries who introduced the decimal system to the then American people because they felt reviled by using the currency of the British government since they were at war with them.

The credit for the American decimal system goes to Thomas Jefferson who was helping the Coinage Act of 1792 to pass and become American law. According to Thomas Jefferson the coin of cent (penny) is the one hundredth of a dollar, the coin of dime (in Latin means tenth) was one tenth of a dollar and to this day we still incorporate the penny and the dime within American coin currency.

Math fractions existed for thousands of years in various forms. The concept of the fractions goes way back to the ancient Babylonians who presented fractions in a place and value system. The system was archaic, but for the Babylonians it did work. These mathematical fractions generally based simply on the value of one. It is probably a difficult concept for students today to grasp and understand, but for the Greeks and Egyptians it was working well.

The Romans during the highlight of the great Roman Empire refined the art of mixing mathematics and fractions. This led to the incorporation of fractions is almost everything the ancient Romans accomplished. The Romans ultimately utilized the number twelve for their base as it derived from the twelve uncias. This was a very effective method for all weights and measures, but it was also very cumbersome too.

The next stage of evolution denoting fractions was with the addition of the horizontal fraction bar. The credit for this fraction symbolism goes to the Arabs who copied what the Hindu created and built upon it by now adding the bar to differentiate the two numbers. At this point in time we have the separation.