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© Copyright 2001, Jim Loy
A friend of mine suggested accounting using 1/2 cent. Two people could deposit 37 cents in a bank, and the bank would owe each of them 18.5 cents. If one of them tries to withdraw his 18.5 cents, the bank could give him 19 cents, and he then owes 1/2 cent to his friend, while the bank now owes the friend 18 cents. The bank could even issue little half-penny coins, as the British government used to do.
I suggested rational accounting. This deals with fractions other than 1/2. If seven people deposit 37 cents, then the bank owes each of them 37/7 cents or 5+2/7 cents. Then if six of the same people deposit 11 cents, then the bank owes each of those six people 299/42 cents or 7+5/42 cents. As time goes on, the fractions could get very complicated. A computer program for doing this just has to keep track of numerators and denominators for each transaction, and for each balance.
That suggested irrational accounting. What if the two people who deposited 37 cents did not own equal portions of that 37 cents? What if they had an agreement that one of them owned 2pi cents (about 6.283185307... cents) of the 37 cents. Then his friend owned 37-2pi cents. A computer program would have to keep track of some mathematical formula for each person involved in a transaction:
Jim 2pi cents
Big Bird 37-2pi cents
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Total 37 cents
That suggests complex accounting. Then an employee might embezzle an imaginary amount of money.