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On 04/05/2011 1:34 PM, Invisible wrote:
> This is almost universally regarded as one of the most useless things
> you learn in school. I haven't studied this statistically, but I suspect
> the majority of adults long since forgot all this stuff.
Rubbish! Maybe young adults can't remember them as they are over reliant
on calculators.
--
Regards
Stephen
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On 04/05/2011 06:05 PM, Stephen wrote:
> On 04/05/2011 1:34 PM, Invisible wrote:
>> This is almost universally regarded as one of the most useless things
>> you learn in school. I haven't studied this statistically, but I suspect
>> the majority of adults long since forgot all this stuff.
>
> Rubbish! Maybe young adults can't remember them as they are over reliant
> on calculators.
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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On 4-5-2011 14:34, Invisible wrote:
>>> Exactly. I mean, unless you happen to be able to compute 64/7 mentally,
>>> which normal humans can't.
>>
>> You're not that much younger than me, so maybe there's something
>> fundamentally different between the school system in the UK vs. Canada,
>> but in the 2nd or 3rd grade, we had to learn our multiplication tables
>> by heart.
>
> This is almost universally regarded as one of the most useless things
> you learn in school. I haven't studied this statistically, but I suspect
> the majority of adults long since forgot all this stuff.
The whole point of learning multiplication tables by heart is that you
need them to do all other computations in base 10.
If you don't know them by heart a large part of our culture is
inaccessible to you.
>
>> Or if they don't, they should be able to guestimate that since 64 is
>> rather close to 70, there's a good chance that 64/7 would be just a bit
>> less than 70/7, which is easy to compute.
>>
>> If not, I weep for humanity.
I'll join you.
--
Apparently you can afford your own dictator for less than 10 cents per
citizen per day.
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On 24/05/2011 21:40, andrel wrote:
> The whole point of learning multiplication tables by heart is that you
> need them to do all other computations in base 10.
Most people would consider that you need a calculator to do any
computations in base 10, beyond really trivial ones.
> If you don't know them by heart a large part of our culture is
> inaccessible to you.
Such as?
>>> If not, I weep for humanity.
>
> I'll join you.
I fear for the future of society, but for many reasons in addition to
this...
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> On 24/05/2011 21:40, andrel wrote:
>
>> The whole point of learning multiplication tables by heart is that you
>> need them to do all other computations in base 10.
>
> Most people would consider that you need a calculator to do any
> computations in base 10, beyond really trivial ones.
Trivial, like multiplying 2 random phone numbers in your head? :P
I've done that several times, just for the /fun/...
Take some random 10 digits number, then another random 7 digit number.
OK. Now, without paper, what is the product? Hint, it's 17 digit long,
possibly 18. Your pocket calculator can't give you the exact result.
>
>> If you don't know them by heart a large part of our culture is
>> inaccessible to you.
>
> Such as?
>
>>>> If not, I weep for humanity.
>>
>> I'll join you.
>
> I fear for the future of society, but for many reasons in addition to
> this...
:P Alain
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>> Most people would consider that you need a calculator to do any
>> computations in base 10, beyond really trivial ones.
>
> Trivial, like multiplying 2 random phone numbers in your head? :P
> I've done that several times, just for the /fun/...
> Take some random 10 digits number, then another random 7 digit number.
> OK. Now, without paper, what is the product? Hint, it's 17 digit long,
> possibly 18. Your pocket calculator can't give you the exact result.
Now, personally, I can't even *remember* a 17 digit number without
pencil and paper, never mind *compute* it. :-P
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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>>> Most people would consider that you need a calculator to do any
>>> computations in base 10, beyond really trivial ones.
>>
>> Trivial, like multiplying 2 random phone numbers in your head? :P
>> I've done that several times, just for the /fun/...
>> Take some random 10 digits number, then another random 7 digit number.
>> OK. Now, without paper, what is the product? Hint, it's 17 digit long,
>> possibly 18. Your pocket calculator can't give you the exact result.
>
> Now, personally, I can't even *remember* a 17 digit number without
> pencil and paper, never mind *compute* it. :-P
>
Remember the 10 digit number and the 7 digit number.
Multiply the first one by the first digit of the 7 digit one.
Remember that.
Repeat for all other 6 digits.
Shift and add the 7 intermediate results.
DONE!
It's a king of mental jogging :)
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>>> Most people would consider that you need a calculator to do any
>>> computations in base 10, beyond really trivial ones.
>>
>> Trivial, like multiplying 2 random phone numbers in your head? :P
>> I've done that several times, just for the /fun/...
>> Take some random 10 digits number, then another random 7 digit number.
>> OK. Now, without paper, what is the product? Hint, it's 17 digit long,
>> possibly 18. Your pocket calculator can't give you the exact result.
>
> Now, personally, I can't even *remember* a 17 digit number without
> pencil and paper, never mind *compute* it. :-P
>
I forgot to tel that you should do it while walking in the city. Please
use secondary streets.
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On 5/25/2011 4:10 PM, Alain wrote:
>
> Remember the 10 digit number and the 7 digit number.
> Multiply the first one by the first digit of the 7 digit one.
> Remember that.
> Repeat for all other 6 digits.
> Shift and add the 7 intermediate results.
> DONE!
>
> It's a king of mental jogging :)
Crap! no way I could do that, my working memory does not have enough
capacity!
--
~Mike
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On 25-5-2011 9:48, Invisible wrote:
> On 24/05/2011 21:40, andrel wrote:
>
>> If you don't know them by heart a large part of our culture is
>> inaccessible to you.
>
> Such as?
basically most of the mathematical knowledge.
--
Apparently you can afford your own dictator for less than 10 cents per
citizen per day.
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