Once upon a time there was a teacher who set his class an examination to perform. And when the youths had finished he marked their scripts. But at the end of his labors he found that, by evil chance, he had worked with a total of 99. And, being an industrious man, he converted all the marks into percentages.
So it was that a pupil with 58 marks gained 58.585858 . . . per cent and a pupil with 73 marks gained 73.737373 . . . per cent, and others likewise.
And when the time was come that he should return the scripts to his class, being an honest man as well as industrious, he confessed what he had done and delivered to them their marks in the form of percentages.
Until he came to one named Smith whose work was perfect, to whom perforce he had awarded the percentage 99.999999 . . . per cent.
"So, Smith Minor," saith he, "though I find no fault in you, yet your percentage falls short of the full total of 100. What say you?"
"Sir," saith Smith Minor, moved to anger, "I call that the limit."
-Fantasia Mathematica, ed. Clifton Fadiman, 294.
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