I think gp&#x27;s point is that 0.33... is &quot;an amount (when talking about money) you don&#x27;t want to represent (when we&#x27;re talking about maintaining balances)&quot; precisely because you, and everybody else, is so used to decimal that it disappears.<p>There&#x27;s <i>nothing</i> intrinsic about 1&#x2F;10 that makes it &quot;rounder&quot; than 1&#x2F;3, except as an artifact of the numbering system.<p>Aliens with three hands with three fingers each, whose societies got used to base 9, would think 1&#x2F;3 looks much &quot;rounder&quot;, and 1&#x2F;10 is the one you&#x27;d never want to represent.