Simple arithmatic

You practice your language and writing skills on a regular basis. You've gotten so good at the basics that you can do them without thought and now you have moved on to more advanced topics. Do you practice your basic math skills? If you want to be serious about getting better in math, start doing pages of simple addition and multiplication. When that starts to get easy, you know you are making progress.

Your not the only one.

I saw a puzzle today which went like this.
Add up in your head 1000+40+1000+30+1000+20+1000+10=

In your head that adds up to 5000 right?




On a calculator it adds up to 4100!!!!!!

Because there are three types of people in this world: those that can count, and those that can't!

My granddad, in the days well before pocket calculators, could multiply three digit numbers in his head. He was able to do it using distribution and addition, Say (abc)X(xyz) he'd break the problem into a*(xyz)*100+b(xyz)*10+c(xyz). He could do all simultaneously add the total and answer the multiplication within about 5 seconds. He did it often both as a utile skill and as a parlor trick, and. as he said, the skill improved with practice.

However, simple arithmetic has little to do with mathematics--math is a subject that goes well beyond mere numeracy.

BTW Pop, my granddad, also memorized the logarithm tables to save himself the time required to look it up.

Rap