Quote Originally Posted by UncleDave View Post
Fractions are not important, decimals are important. Engineers and machinists do not use fractions. Only trades where accurate measurements are not critical use them like in carpentry.
As a systems engineer with a background in computer science, I would dispute this statement. An understanding of the fractions involved are VERY important in understanding the limitations of decimal (and more importantly digital) representations of real world problems. The actual computation will be done using digital representations with decimal output but I prefer the actual fractional equations whereever possible.